14 May, 2010 (01:15) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 14 May 2010.
United States & the Americas
- NY Post – Three people were arrested today after an army of FBI agents executed search warrants at several locations across the Northeast in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing, authorities said. The feds raised homes on Long Island, New Jersey, Maine and in the Boston suburbs this morning. The three men, all from Pakistan, were being held on immigration-related charges.
- AFPS – Lauding successes within North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command aimed at protecting the homeland, the outgoing commander emphasized today that the threats confronting the United States – both natural and manmade – will continue.
- VIC News – Considering it uses technology developed when the 386 computer processor was in vogue, HMCS Calgary gets along quite fine. Crew members watching and listening for potential threats, communicating information to senior officers and aiming and firing the ship’s weaponry help the 1990s frigate continue to play an effective role in a world where terrorism and shore-based threats are more common than Cold War-style confrontations
- BBC – A gas platform has sunk in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela, but the energy minister says it poses no risk to the environment. The Aban Pearl platform was drilling in the Mariscal Sucre offshore natural gas project, off the coast of Venezuela’s Sucre state. It belongs to an Indian company, Aban Offshore Ltd, but was being operated by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, which is developing the field.
- Miami Herald – When Venezuela’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Diego Arria, learned that President Hugo Chávez had expropriated his ranch, his first reaction was to announce that he would submit a complaint to the Cuban Embassy. That’s where the real power in Venezuela lies, he said.
- COHA – Adversaries, yes. Enemies, no (at least not yet). However, they are enemies of global capitalism which, in the eyes of some Americans, makes Chávez and Morales enemies of the American people. But this is one of many misleading impressions which inadequate Latin America coverage by U.S. media helps to perpetuate.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- RIA Novosti – Russia and Turkey could increase bilateral trade to $100 billion over the next five years, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday
- Kremlin – President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will make an official visit to Russia on May 13-14
- Russia Today – “We have identified all members of the group behind the blasts in the Moscow Metro, both the organizers and the bombers themselves. When we tried to detain three members of the group – one of them being the person who escorted the suicide bombers from Dagestan to Moscow, and then guided them to the Metro – we could not take them alive as they fought back, so we had to take them out,” FSB director Aleksandr Bortnikov said.
- RFERL – A Moscow court has jailed a Russian citizen for four years for passing secrets to the United States. The Moscow city court convicted Gennady Sipachev of spying for the United States by handing over top secret Russian military maps for the Pentagon to assist the targeting of U.S. missile systems
- Russia MoD – Victory Day parade, Red Square, Moscow (photo-essay)
- UPI – The pro-Russian government of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych won’t give up control of the energy industry to Kremlin patrons, officials said.
- Gazprom – Kazan hosted another round of commercial negotiations between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The parties continued coordinating commercial parameters of the future Russian natural gas supplies to the market of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) provided for in the June 2009 Russian-Chinese Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the natural gas sector
- Caucasian Knot – The European human rights court (EHRC) in Strasbourg has fined Russia to the sum of 225 000 euro for disappearance and death of habitants of Chechnya, the released court communique informs today. Relatives of the disappeared people repeatedly applied to the Russian judicial bodies but were not satisfied with their decisions. In the claimants’ opinion, the local courts failed to investigate properly the circumstances of their relatives’ disappearance
- Kavkaz Center – A mobile-phone tower and TV repeater came under fire last night near the village of Vanashimakhi, Segolinsky District of Dagestan, occupation sources report. In the morning the members of puppet gang of “Segolinsky police department” and “special task police unit” gang went there and were ambushed by the Mujahideen near the village of Ayazi. A fierce fight took place. Later occupation sources reported that the Mujahideen attacked convoy of special police unit with grenade launchers and automatic rifles and blow up several roadside bombs. About 40 policemen were in the convoy. According to preliminary data, reported by the invaders, 8 police officers from “Segolinsky police department” gang have been eliminated and 4 others, including the police chief a certain Maka Kurbanov, wounded
- BBC – Supporters of Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president have stormed regional government buildings in the south of the ex-Soviet republic. Hundreds of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s supporters took over buildings in Osh and Jalalabad, but the new government said it had regained control in Batken.
- BNE – Kazakhstan is planning to export up to 3m tonnes of grain to East and Southeast Asia this year after China lifted a ban on such exports through its territory. Overall, Kazakhstan is willing to export 3m tonnes of grain via China this year as both Japan, the world’s largest importer of grain, and South Korea look to the Black Sea grain belt as a new source of imports. Kazakhstan will export a total of 2m tonnes of grain to South Korea in 2010
- Asia Times – Azerbaijan has again raised the amount of gas it is willing to provide to Nabucco, to the extent that the country could supply half the projected capacity of the operatically named pipeline planned to carry fuel to Europe. As the project picks up pace, other interested parties are setting up shop in Baku, the Azerbaijan capital
Middle East
- Khaleej Times – A bomb in a parked car ripped through a Sadr City neighborhood Wednesday evening, killing seven young people who had gathered at a nearby cafe to drink tea and play dominoes, Iraqi officials said.
- Aswat al-Iraq – Security forces in Diala arrested an Iranian national in an eastern Iraq area while taking photographs of places near security checkpoints, a local security official said on Thursday.
- Khaleej Times – Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose relations with Cairo are growing increasingly tense, accused Egypt of torturing Palestinian prisoners
- Haaretz – Hamas captors holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza move him from hideout to hideout twice a week, officials close to militant group’s armed wing said Thursday. Sources close to Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said in statements published on local Gaza news sites that Hamas changes the hideouts for fear that Israel was planning a “selective military operation to free Shalit”.
- Daily Star – A Lebanese military court handed 31 alleged members of the Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group Fatah al-Islam prison terms of up to 15 years for terrorism, a judicial source said on Wednesday
- Naharnet – An Arab diplomat has been discovered to be a key member of a drug smuggling ring that the ISF’s Drug Combating Bureau had uncovered, reported the daily Al Akhbar Thursday. It added that the diplomat used his car to transport the drugs across the border
- Asharq Al Awsat – The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah al-Sheikh told Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday that terrorism in Saudi Arabia is a foreign phenomenon that this is no longer present in the Kingdom after the security authorities completely eliminated this
- Javno – Yemen’s Zaidi rebels have denied abducting four soldiers as claimed by the government blaming the authorities for kidnappings and unrest in the country, in a statement on their website
- Gulf News – Gunmen are seizing schools in north Yemen despite a ceasefire to end a war between the Sana’a government and Shi’ite rebels, in a sign the three-month-old truce may be under pressure, a UNICEF official said. Both the rebels and pro-government fighters have occupied schools by force, scaring off teachers and students in a region where school attendance is already abysmally low
Iran
- Fars – Iranian foreign ministry blasted the recent claims raised by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah on Iran’s three Persian Gulf Islands, describing the trio as an indispensible part of the country.
- RFERL – Iranian militiamen have raided a Sufi house of worship in the northern city of Karaj, a Sufi community leader told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. Mostafa Azmayesh is a representative of the Sufi Nematollahi Gonabadi order, which suffered the attack. Azmayesh told Radio Farda on May 12 that roughly 100 members of the Basij security force accompanied by plainclothes agents on motorcycles attacked the house of worship on May 10 in this city west of Tehran.
- IRNA – Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said here on Thursday that defense agreements with Tajikstan will further consolidate bilateral defense cooperation.IRNA – Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said here on Thursday that defense agreements with Tajikstan will further consolidate bilateral defense cooperation.
- MEMRI – Residents of the big cities in Iranian Kurdistan, in northwestern Iran, launched a general strike to protest against the May 9 execution of five Kurdish separatists, including one woman, by the regime.
- Press TV – Iran and the Democratic Republic of Congo will expand relations in line with the Islamic Republic’s new priority of developing better ties in Africa
- Press TV – An Iranian company is to invest $300 million in a joint venture with a Kenyan firm to turn Iran’s southern port of Bandar Imam into a regional hub for the import and export of grains
- Payvand – Photos: Nomadic life in western Lorestan province
South Asia
- NATO – An Afghan-international security force killed several insurgents and detained almost a dozen others as the patrol searched for a Pakistani-based Taliban commander in Helmand Province last night
- NOW Lebanon – Up to 40 Taliban-linked militants have been killed in separate raids by Afghan and NATO troops in northern and central Afghanistan, military officials told AFP.
- Pentagon – The Department of Defense announced today the death of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. The following Marines died May 11 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan
- UK MoD – As Operation MOSHTARAK enters its fourth month, NATO Commander Major General Nick Carter briefed the media today on the progress made within Nad ‘Ali and the progress that remains to be made in the area of Marjah
- BBC – Thousands of Afghans have protested in the eastern city of Jalalabad against the alleged executions of a number of Afghan refugees in Iran. Demonstrators rallied in front of the Iranian consulate, shouting slogans and throwing eggs. This is the fifth and largest anti-Iran protest in Afghanistan in a fortnight.
- AP – Afghanistan’s opium yield is likely to drop as much as 30 percent this year because blight is destroying fields full of poppies in the south – driving up prices amid a countrywide push to grow legal crops, a U.N. official said Thursday
- Times of India – Indian high commission staffer Madhuri Gupta may have spied for Pakistan but she turned down a marriage proposal from Pakistani intelligence operative Jamshed she was liaising with.
An SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter from the Chargers of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 14, embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, flies near the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga. George Washington is underway conducting sea trials in the western Pacific Ocean after completing a selective restricted availability. (photo by Seaman Danielle A. Brandt)
Far East & Pacific
- Yonhap – Investigators are testing metal pieces collected from the site where a South Korean naval ship sank and comparing them with a North Korean torpedo to see if they are made of the same material, an official said Thursday
- The Australian – A key figure in Thailand’s anti-government protests was shot and seriously wounded last night as gunfire and an explosion rang out at a vast Red Shirts camp after the army threatened to seal the site in Bangkok. Renegade Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol, who is regarded as a military strategist for the protesters, was in a “very serious condition”, said a nurse at Hua Chiew Hospital last night
- CSM – An agreement between the red shirts and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has broken down, with protesters vowing to continue their Bangkok sit-in and the government ordering armored vehicles and snipers to surround and seal off the protest site
- AP – Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to settle the Okinawa base issue by the end of this month. Polls suggest he will be under heavy pressure to resign, after barely nine months in office, if he fails to do so
- Japan Times – For much of the Cold War, China’s navy was little more than an elaborate coast guard. It was barely a blip on the maritime horizons of Japan and Southeast Asia. Today the Chinese armed forces are in the midst of an intense and sustained modernization program, and the navy has emerged as a key service for protecting and advancing national interests. It gets more than one-third of the declared military budget
- Xinhua – The old Silk Road with a history of some 2,000 years has long linked China to the Arab world. A new Silk Road featuring close trade and economic cooperation is now being built by the two sides through their joint efforts. The fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, which starts in China’s northern port city of Tianjin on Thursday, is expected to inject new vigor into bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
- The Interpreter – When Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev sought greater Indian involvement in his country during a meeting with PM Manmohan Singh in Washington on 12 April, it was not without reason. China proposes to extend its new high-speed rail network, connecting 17 countries and comprising three major routes linking Kunming in China with Singapore via South Asia, Urumqi and Germany through Central Asia, and Heilongjiang with Southeastern Europe via Russia.
- Jakarta Post – The police’s counterterrorism squad has captured two other terrorist suspects alive in Solo, Central Java
- Times – It’s been a bad week for Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister. He began it by facing opinion polls that showed his popularity had plummeted that if an election was held now, he would lose
Europe
- NPR – Spaniards face the prospect that their country is slipping into a second European tier, scorned by its neighbors and by the bond markets, which aren’t convinced the country will demonstrate budget discipline
- Spiegel – In a dramatic appeal for Europeans to come together to address the common currency crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Thursday that if the euro collapses, so will the idea of European unity. She also described the current euro crisis as Europe’s greatest test since the collapse of communism
- euronews – Portugal has become he latest EU country to announce addition austerity measures in an attempt to avoid a Greek-style debt crisis. Prime Minister Jose Socrates and opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho agreed to reduce this year’s budget deficit by around two billion euros
- Jerusalem Post – Protests outside Iranian embassies in Sweden and Denmark turned violent Thursday as rock-throwing demonstrators tried to force their way into the compounds. In Stockholm, one demonstrator received minor arm injuries and several people were arrested as protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the embassy building. Police said the crowd of around 250 people demonstrating against capital punishment in Iran also burned flags.
- AKI – Two Moroccan terrorist suspects deported from Italy last month were allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI, Italian weekly Panorama claims in its latest issue to be released on Friday. Mohammed Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed were students at the University of Perugia until their repatriation to Morocco on 29 April
Africa
- VOA – The most powerful faction of Somalia’s Hizbul Islam insurgents has officially cut ties with the group. The split occurred following allegations the Ras Kamboni faction recently signed a secret deal with the Somali government and neighboring Kenya
- LA Times – As Somali troops prepare to dislodge Islamic militants from Mogadishu, some soldiers have deserted. The task ahead will be difficult and will endanger a vulnerable population. On streets and alleys whittled by gunfire, Col. Abdi Bashir Dhagol is arming for a new battle amid the fleeing families, bloodied markets and boy soldiers of Mogadishu
- AKI – Militants from Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group on Thursday claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt against the former governor of Mogadishu, Mohamed Omar Habeb. One person was killed and Habeb and four others with him were injured when a roadside bomb exploded as his car drove by in Mogadishu’s Shangay district.
- Sudan Tribune – The leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has criticized the Qatari role in the peace process saying Doha is favouring the Sudanese government side in the talks.
- Al Jazeera – Police in Dubai have arrested James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-rich Niger Delta, on corruption charges, the head of Nigeria’s anti-fraud agency has said.
- Bloomberg – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan nominated Namadi Sambo, the governor of the northern Kaduna State, as his deputy, a presidential aide said. Analysts were watching the decision for signs that Jonathan plans to stand for the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation in next year’s elections. Such a decision would run against the ruling party’s policy of rotating candidates between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south for two four-year terms. Jonathan, a southerner who took power in February after the northern incumbent, Umaru Yar’Adua, fell ill, hasn’t ruled himself out of the race.
- This Day – Oil giant ExxonMobil Corporation yesterday confirmed that its Nigerian subsidiary Mobil Producing Nigeria has declared force majeure on its Qua Iboe crude oil export due to damage to a key pipeline. However, company sources hinted that about 150,000 barrels per day may have been affected at the Qua Iboe export terminal which has a capacity to export 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day
- Daily Trust – A business delegation from India has indicated interest to assist in developing Nigeria’s cotton and textile industry as well as explore other business opportunities in the country. the visit is part of the Indian team’s business tour to selected Africans countries that include Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Chad, Mali and Nigeria to strengthen its business partnership.
- New Times – Trade between China and Africa continued to register positive growth estimated at $91 billion last year, despite the negative effect of the global recession a top Chinese official has said. While the figure is slightly lower than $106.8billion registered in 2008, China says it is optimistic that trade will continue to grow with increasing economic cooperation between the two trade partners.
- Times of Zambia – China Development Bank has staked US$5 billion for the Zambian mining sector. The bank yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development where three other MoUs in the fields of agriculture and infrastructure development were also signed.
Afghanistan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, far left, John Metzler, superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, center left, and Aghanistan President Hamid Karzai, center right, listen to U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, center, at a grave site while touring Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery, Va., May 13, 2010. (photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison)
The Global War
- Australia DoD – Six hundred Australian Defence Force personnel have participated in Exercise Bersama Shield 2010 (BS10), a multi-lateral exercise between Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The exercise continued to build on the close working relationship that has been developed between the five nations through the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) over almost forty years.
- McClatchy – Nearly a decade after the United States began to focus its military training and equipment purchases almost exclusively on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military strategists are quietly shifting gears, saying that large-scale counterinsurgency efforts cost too much and last too long.
- Stars and Stripes – Al-Qaida operatives who have been detained for years in Iran have been making their way quietly in and out of the country, raising the prospect that Iran is loosening its grip on the terror group so it can replenish its ranks, former and current U.S. intelligence officials say
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21 April, 2010 (01:11) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 21 April 2010.
United States & the Americas
- AFPS – Iran may be capable of striking the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015, according to a Defense Department report submitted to Congress yesterday. The unclassified analysis outlines near-term and longer-term threats posed by Iran, including Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its desire to extend its influence in the Middle East. (you can read the ballistic missile review here, in PDF) (you can read the Iran report here, in PDF)
- Pentagon briefing – And so first, with the single export control list, we currently have two primary lists, the — and I think I’ll leave it to — I think you’ll get into those when you talk about the phases. Two primary lists, but one led by State, one led by Commerce, DOD involved in both, other agencies involved in both. The — you’re familiar with the USML, the United States Munitions List and the critical commodities list, the two — the two main elements of this. So we’re looking to move toward a single export control list, to make it clear to companies that they have a single place to go, in terms of understanding what restrictions may be, and frankly to avoid situations where people may attempt to either forum shop, by trying to use one list versus the other, or cases where they get captured by two lists and have to go — in some cases, we’ve had people have to go or organizations have to go sequentially through more than one — more than one export control process.
- America.gov – Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a large contingent of his senior Cabinet officials will come to Washington in May for meetings aimed at strengthening relations between the United States and Afghanistan, says Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
- FBI – Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, of Ardsley, New York, was sentenced to 121 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of terrorism financing and conspiracy to commit wire fraud by perpetrating a massive investment fraud scheme
- Defense News – The near success of the Christmas Day bomber on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit has been characterized as a failure to “connect the dots.” Now, additional teams of specialists are being formed to run down clues
- ICJ – The International Court of Justice rejected Argentina’s claims that a Urguayan paper mill contaminated a river shared by both countries, ending a three-year dispute between the two South American neighbours, and ruled that there was “no conclusive” evidence that Uruguay neglected obligations to protect the environment or that the factory caused harm to the Uruguay river (PDF)
- Miami Herald – A Colombian general and five other members of its military have died in a helicopter collision at a base in the nation’s southwest.
- Times – Chinese and Russian-made fighter jets blasted through the skies, shaking the dilapidated buildings of Caracas as they passed. Tanks and troops paraded through the streets and special forces troops shouted in unison: “I’m an anti-imperialist socialist!” The capital was draped in red as thousands of military personnel, dancers and supporters hailed Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan President. Allies from across the region flew in to attend the celebrations. This week marked the 200th anniversary of Venezuela’s rebellion against the Spanish empire.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Today – Two powerful explosions occurred on Tuesday in the Republic of Dagestan in southern Russia, Itar-Tass news agency reports, quoting a source at the local Interior Ministry
- Itar Tass – Unidentified people opened fire at a detail of the police patrol service in Makhachkala on Tuesday killing two police officers, as ITAR-TASS learnt at the press service of the Interior Ministry for Dagestan
- RIA Novosti – Pantsir-S gun and missile air defense systems – a new development from Russian weapons makers – have taken part in drills near Astrakhan. According to the training scenario, a Pantsir-S was to destroy a target missed by S-300 missile crews.
- RIA Novosti – The warships of the Black Sea Naval group left the Bulgarian port of Varna on Tuesday to conduct the next stage of exercises, a Black Sea Fleet commander said
- Stolica-s – According to forecasts of the head of health ministry of Russia, Golikova, by 2020 the number of Russian women at the age of 20-29 would decrease by 4.6 million, or 38%. (in Russian)
- John Russell – Although surprise is necessary for any successful terror operation, the warning signs have been there for some time. Despite the success of Kadyrov in suppressing armed opposition in Chechnya, much of the violence had merely shifted to the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan. Last year there was a significant increase in the number of insurgent attacks in the three republics as a whole. As pressure on the resistance increased, the tactic of suicide bombings reappeared after a considerable lull. In November the fight was once again taken to Russia, with the bombing of the Nevsky Express train between Moscow and St Petersburg.
- EurasiaNet – Political instability is encouraging inter-ethnic hostility in Kyrgyzstan. Some Bishkek schools and shops closed on April 20, a day after a pogrom shattered the peace in a suburb of the Kyrgyz capital. Some non-Kyrgyz residents are now saying they want to leave the Central Asian country
Middle East
- AP – A regional al-Qaida leader was killed Tuesday as U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to put pressure on the terrorist organization following the reported deaths of its two top-ranking figures on the weekend, officials said. In a joint morning raid, U.S. and Iraqi forces acting on intelligence information killed suspected insurgent leader Ahmed al-Obeidi in the northern province of Ninevah, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.
- Press TV – Five family members of a local chief of an anti-terror militia have been brutally slaughtered in their homes in the Iraqi province of Salahuddin. The attack was carried out in Tarmiyah. “The wife, a daughter of 22 and three boys between 12 and 16 (years of age)were shot dead, with the assassins also beheading the last three,” AFP quoted the Tarmiyah police chief as saying.
- Al Sumaria – Iraqi Cabinet spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh told Alsumaria News that Iraqi Government managed to gather intelligence on Al Qaeda structure in Iraq, the network’s communication inside Iraq and with the international network led by Ousama Ben Laden.
- Haaretz – The leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed on Monday to capture more Israeli soldiers to use in bargaining for the release of Palestinian prisoners
- NOW Lebanon – Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will soon meet with his Egyptian counterpart, Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, in Egypt for the first time in over four years.
- OGJ – Suncor Energy Inc., Calgary, started commercial gas deliveries from the $1.2 billion (Can.) Ebla gas development in central Syria through facilities with a capacity of 80 MMcfd. The project covers more than 300,000 acres in Ash Shaer and Cherrife fields in the Central Syrian gas basin.
Iran
- Press TV – Iran has arrested members of a terrorist group that planned to carry out attacks in the west of the country, says the Iranian interior minister. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said on Tuesday that members of the group, which had entered the western province of Kurdistan to carry out terrorist attacks across Iran, were arrested by Intelligence Ministry forces “before they could make a single move.”
- RIA Novosti – Iran has overhauled and modernized its warplanes, including the “sophisticated” F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, an Iranian military official said on Tuesday
- Tehran Times – The Iranian government has allocated $5 billion of its “internal resources” for the development of the giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
US Army Spc. Johnathan Baumes watches an Afghan police checkpoint in Sabari, Khowst province, Afghanistan, April 6, 2010. Baumes is assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's Company D, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade. (photo by Sgt. Jeffrey Alexander)
South Asia
- UK MoD – Responsibility for and command of the Sangin Area of Operations has officially been transferred from 3rd Battalion The Rifles (3 RIFLES) to 40 Commando Royal Marines.
- AKI – NATO-led troops killed four unarmed men after firing on a vehicle in southeastern Afghanistan, the alliance said on Tuesday. Meanwhile in Kabul, a NATO soldier was killed in a bomb attack at an Afghan army base. In addition, an Afghan soldier reportedly died and the blast left three others injured.
- RFERL – Unknown gunmen have shot dead a deputy mayor of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, according to Afghan officials. The Interior Ministry today said that Azizullah Zeyarmal was on his way to a mosque on April 19 when gunmen opened fire on him
- Dawn – A remote controlled bomb planted in the Toor-Garhi area struck a military convoy in the northwestern region of Hangu
- Times of India – Maoists on Tuesday night carried out near-simultaneous attacks on four CRPF camps in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, triggering gunbattles but there was no immediate report of casualties.
- IDSA – Close on the heels of her visit to India, Bangladesh Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina visited China. Hasina’s visit needs to be seen in the context of past attempts by Bangladesh to use China as a counter-balance against India. However, a fundamental difference this time around was the fact that the Hasina government, which came to power in the 2008 elections, is widely perceived as India-friendly. Thus, it is of interest to see what approach this friendly government takes towards China whose growing presence in South Asia has been a cause of discomfort to India
Far East & Pacific
- Khaleej Times – North Korea is preparing for a third atomic test that may come in May or June, South Korean broadcaster YTN reported on Tuesday, which could further isolate Pyongyang and complicate already troubled nuclear diplomacy
- Japan Times – Two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers that were spotted earlier this month on the high seas near Okinawa later passed near Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori, several government sources said Tuesday
- FAS – The Chinese navy has constructed what appears to be a demagnetization facility near an East Sea Fleet submarine base. The facility is the second spotted at Chinese naval bases since 2008
- Brad Blitz – For months monitors have reported on the crackdown against stateless Rohingya refugees in south eastern Bangladesh and allegations that the Thai Navy is pushing back boatloads of them in the Andaman Sea. As Burma, Bangladesh and Thailand all gear up for elections, these practices seem more common. One fear is that anticipated changes in Burma following polling there will send more unwanted Muslim migrants to seek refuge in neighbouring states
Europe
- Al Arabiya – Austria’s government approved Tuesday an anti-terrorism amendment that calls for jail terms for “preachers of hate” and people who attend a foreign terrorist training camp.
- UPI – Kyrgyzstan’s ousted leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev is in Belarus, that country’s President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday.
Africa
- Press TV – Deadly clashes have resumed in Somalia with at least 30 killed so far, as warring groups prepare for more violence in the conflict-torn nation.
- Reuters – Two parties in Sudan’s underdeveloped east on Tuesday accused the president’s party of using fraud and intimidation to secure election victories across their region, as the U.S. White House said the vote had been beset by “serious irregularities.”
- Jamestown – A Tuareg rebel leader who was sentenced to death in 2008 has been arrested in Niger’s capital of Niamey after returning from exile to negotiate peace with the government
- BBC – Four Saharan desert states are to open a joint command headquarters in Algeria to co-ordinate efforts to counter the growing regional threat from al-Qaeda. The Joint Military Staff Committee of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger will be based in Tamanrasset.
- Magharebia – Acting on information provided by a repentant terrorist, Algerian army units have reportedly surrounded Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emir Abu Musab Abdelouadoud in the Bordj Bou Arreridj region of Sidi Brahem
- VOA – Fighting in western provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo has displaced more than 100,000 people. Some are seeking refuge across the border in Congo-Brazzaville where relief officials say they have only enough supplies to feed one-third of the refugees
- Global Witness – Former rebels from the Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP) have established mafia-style extortion rackets covering some of the most lucrative tin and tantalum mining areas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), campaign group Global Witness reported today, following four weeks of research in the region
- Daily Nation – Zimbabwe’s fragile coalition government has been hit by a new row after President Robert Mugabe unilaterally invited Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the country. President Ahmadinejad arrives in Zimbabwe on April 23 to open the country’s biggest trade showcase in the second city of Bulawayo and a tractor manufacturing plant outside Harare
- UPI – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected Friday in Uganda to discuss building an oil refinery in the energy-rich African nation.
- New Times (Rwanda) – The Defence and Military Leadership suspended from duty and arrested Lieutenant General Charles Muhire and Major General Emmanuel Karenzi Karake. This was revealed by the Defence and military spokesman, Major Jill Rutaremara, who said that the two senior army officers committed serious offences.
- Howard French, The Atlantic – All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation?
The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Philadelphia passes the U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle as it approaches Naval Submarine Base New London. Philadelphia recently completed its final deployment and is scheduled to be decommissioned June 25. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Peter Blair)
The Global War
- Asia Times – Trade between China and Pakistan is soaring, thanks to free-trade deals between the two countries. That is worrying much of Pakistan’s business community as they struggle to compete with a deluge of cheap imports, while tax authorities are concerned at the loss of income arising from the misuse of the agreements.
- Roman Muzalevsky – The Economic Underpinnings of China’s Regional Security Strategy in Afghanistan
- APP – Pakistan Navy will get a major boost in its operational capacity, when it adds USS McInerney frigate to its existing fleet as PNS ALAMGIR early next year, Pakistan and the United States signed a $ 65 million contract on Tuesday for ‘hot transfer’ of USS McInerney frigate, enabling Pakistan Navy to take over the vessel on August 31 this year.
- Robert Kaplan – Today China’s ambitions are as aggressive as those of the United States a century ago, but for completely different reasons. China does not take a missionary approach to world affairs, seeking to spread an ideology or a system of government. Instead, its actions are propelled by its need to secure energy, metals and strategic minerals in order to support the rising living standards of its immense population
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19 April, 2010 (00:52) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 19 April 2010.
United States & the Americas
- Senate Armed Services Cmte – testimony on U.S. policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran
- NYT – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.
- House Armed Services Cmte – Joint Statement of William Perry and Stephen Hadley on Quadrennial Defense Review (PDF)
- FBI – Five employees of Blackwater World-Wide, including its former president, two former vice presidents, general counsel, and an armorer, were indicted on charges of conspiring to violate a series of federal statutes resulting in the acquisitions and dispositions of firearms; filing false ATF Forms; unlawful possession of automatic firearms; possession of unregistered firearms; and obstruction of justice
- Star Tribune – Eight months after Shane Bauer went hiking with two friends in Iraq, two mothers spend their days in Minnesota pressing for the captives’ release from an Iranian prison.
- Macleans – Canada outstripped its NATO allies almost two-to-one in the number of prisoners it turned over to Afghan authorities in the first nine months of last year, figures prepared for the Afghan government show.
- Telegraph – Canada’s senior military commander in Afghanistan has ordered an investigation into himself after he accidentally fired his rifle while loading it at an air base.
- Itar Tass – The Brazilian Air Force has received the first three Mi-35M transport and combat helicopters. The handing-over ceremony and a military parade in this connection took place at the Brazilian air base of Porto Velho in the southwestern Amazon region on Saturday. Rosoboronexport concluded the contract in 2008 to supply Russian transport and combat helicopters to Brazil.
- AFP – Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said Saturday he will introduce legislation under which foreign oil companies will face nationalization if they fail to sign contracts acceptable to Quito.
- Columbia Reports – A demobilized guerrilla of the FARC claims Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with leaders of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC on Colombian territory in 1998, one year before he became president.
- NYT – President Hugo Chávez said over the weekend that China had agreed to extend $20 billion in loans to Venezuela, pointing to deepening ties between the two countries as China seeks to secure oil supplies here.
- The Observer – Travel through pretty much any country in Latin America and you see the influence: a football stadium for Costa Rica, scholarships for Venezuela, a car factory for Uruguay, billion-dollar loans for Brazil. All from China. The Asian superpower has moved into a region the US once considered its backyard and discreetly established itself as a major economic player.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- RIA Novosti – Russia is looking into the possibility of a gas discount for Ukraine in exchange for participation in Ukrainian energy projects, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Saturday.
- UPI – Russia is increasingly flexing its military muscles by penetrating Western airspace. European defense officials have been worried about an increasing number of Russian bombers entering Western airspace.
- Voice of Russia – The Department of State Security and the Prosecutor General of Lithuania are verifying information about the involvement of a citizen of that country in the terrorist attacks in the Moscow subway on March 29. According to the report, on the eve of the attacks on the subway in Moscow a 20-year-old woman from Klaip?da was arrested at the Vilnius International Airport. In her luggage suspicious items had been found, including: data on explosive mechanisms and their use, as well as a map of the Moscow subway. According to investigators, the newspaper notes, the Lithuanian had Chechen friends with whom she had lived in Klaipeda, who later turned up dead
- Kremlin – President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov will make an official visit to Russia on April 19–20
- Russia Today – One of Russia’s key filmmakers – whose name is familiar in Europe and in the West – Oscar-winner Nikita Mikhalkov has presented his long-awaited WWII epic drama, “Burnt by the Sun 2”.
- NYT – Ingushetia’s president and a rebel leader are waging a battle for the region’s disenchanted young men: some will remain loyal to Russia, but others will turn against it.
- RFERL – Interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan have opened hundreds of criminal cases into possible wrongdoing under exiled President Kurmanbek Bakiev and say they are preparing extradition requests for former officials who fled to neighboring Kazakhstan
- AP – A top official in Kyrgyzstan’s interim government told The Associated Press on Saturday that a U.S. air base supporting operations in Afghanistan is “not justified,” the first sign of significant divisions over the facility.
Middle East
- Al Arabiya – Al-Qaeda in Iraq is rigging houses and shops with explosives in a new tactic that has killed and maimed civilians in recent weeks and defied the thousands of security forces in Baghdad, officials say. The renting of residential buildings for targeted bombings has forced police and the army to adapt their operations, in a bid to prevent more of the attacks that have killed dozens since the country’s inconclusive March 7 election.
- Aswat al-Iraq – Twenty Iranian intelligence officers entered Iraqi territories to head for Camp Ashraf of the anti-Iran group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Diala, a PMOI source said on Saturday. “Those officers, who are being protected by the Iraqi security forces in charge of the facility security, were brought near the camp in order to press its residents to leave Iraqi territories,” Aqbaie added.
- NCRI – While the Thursday night attack by the Iraqi forces against Ashraf residents has earned another disgrace for Nouri al-Maliki and his outgoing government, the Iranian regime and its agents in Iraq have resorted to fabrication of more lies and deception.
- Aswat al-Iraq – Defense ministry receives Phoenix base in Green Zone
- Al Sumaria – Gunmen kill Iraq singer Qassem Abou Amer in front of his house
- Times – Israel has delivered a secret warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad that it will respond to missile attacks from Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese-based Islamist group, by launching immediate retaliation against Syria itself. In a message, sent earlier this month, Israel made it clear that it now regards Hezbollah as a division of the Syrian army and that reprisals against Syria will be fast and devastating.
- NOW Lebanon – Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani praised Hezbollah during his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Shami on Sunday, LBCI television reported.
- Hurriyet – A U.S. government intelligence center believed to be linked to the CIA has produced a report about the ongoing Ergenekon case in Turkey in the format of a guidebook. The Open Source Center prepared the report March 19, but it was not publicly released, as the center’s other reports typically are.
- Jerusalem Post – Weapons outnumber the population in Yemen three to one, raising concerns a power vacuum in the unstable state may unleash unbridled violence.
- State Dept – Let me start by talking about the circumstances we face today arose in Yemen. Then I’ll turn to the Obama administration’s strategy for the country, which aims to help the Yemeni government to both confront the immediate security concern of al-Qa’ida and mitigate the serious political, economic, and governance issues that the country faces over the long term.
Iran
- Press TV – Key Iranian government figures and top army brass have gathered in Tehran on National Army Day for a glimpse at the country’s latest military achievements. The annual ceremony kicked off on Tuesday with Iran’s aerial, ground, and naval forces staging a military parade in front of the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, outside Tehran
- ynet – The parade in Tehran showcased Iran’s surface-to-surface Ghadr, Sajjil and Shahab-3 missiles, which have a range of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers), putting Israel and US bases in the region within Iran’s reach.
- Iran MFA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here on Sunday called on the foreign forces to leave the region. He made the remarks while addressing Ceremonies marking the observance of the Army Day which started in southern Tehran this morning. Interference of foreigners is the root cause of all tensions and divisions in the region, the President noted.
- Press TV – Iran is to resume exporting two million tons of wheat to three neighboring Arab countries after a three-year halt, a deputy commerce minister has said.
- Tehran Times – Iran plans to seek compensation from the British Museum after the museum refused to lend the country the Cyrus Cylinder for a showcase.
- Fars – The commander said that the police arrested 112 drug traffickers and dealers during the operations, most of home came from and ran drug trafficking activities in such southern Iranian cities as Bushehr, Dashti and Assalouyeh.
- Payvand – Aerial Photos of Golestan Province, Iran
Members of the Afghan National Army assisted by Special Forces conduct a patrol to their objective during an operation in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. (photo by Sgt. Jason Carter)
South Asia
- Khaleej Times – President Hamid Karzai took key steps toward reforming the country’s electoral system Saturday, naming a respected former judge to head Afghanistan’s election-organizing body and backing down from a bid to keep international representatives off a separate team that monitors fraud
- Asharq Al Awsat – Operations aimed at protecting supply routes through northern Afghanistan from Taliban attack killed at least 29 militants, including two commanders, over four days, the Interior Ministry
- USASOC – Commandos from the 4th Commando Kandak, assisted by U. S. Special Operations Forces, were attacked during a presence patrol in Joy Koja village, Morghab district, Badghis province April 15. For more than one week insurgents in the Morghab River Valley have struggled to maintain their dwindling presence in the area, which previously served as a nexus for illegal narcotics terrorist-related activity throughout Badghis province.
- Stars and Stripes – The Taliban are moving fighters into Kandahar, planting bombs and plotting attacks as NATO and Afghan forces prepare for a summer showdown with insurgents, according to a Taliban commander with close ties to senior insurgent leaders.
- Bundeswehr – The battle in Baghlan Afghanistan and the following events (in German)
- Sweden MoD – Sweden and Turkey agree on cooperation in northern Afghanistan
- Al Jazeera – Three Italian aid workers accused of involvement of a plot to kill the governor of an Afghan province have been freed after an investigation concluded they were “not guilty”.
- United Nations – Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (PDF)
- Daily Times – Two burqa-clad suicide bombers targeted a crowd of internally displaced persons (IDP) waiting to get themselves registered and receive relief goods at an IDP camp on Saturday, killing at least 44 and injuring more than 70.
- The News – In a fresh wave of terrorism, 12 people, including a journalist and two DSPs, were killed and 27 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the Civil Hospital here on Friday
- Geo – At least seven people were killed and 26 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in the northwestern Pakistani city of Kohat on Sunday, police said. “It was a suicide attack, the target was a police station,” Dilawar Khan Bangash, city police chief, said
- AP – Abdul Baseer sent the grenades and explosive vest ahead, then boarded a bus that would take him to his target, accompanied by the 14-year-old boy he had groomed as his suicide bomber.
- Dawn – At least 13 militants and one soldier were killed during the on-going military operation in the Orakzai agency on Sunday.
- TIME – Islamabad’s forces aren’t pursuing the Taliban in North Waziristan, despite American pleas, because it says it is heeding the lessons of Iraq
- Deccan Herald – As a direct fall-out of Saturday’s twin explosions outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the recovery of two more bombs in the vicinity of the playing arena on Sunday, the semifinals of the Indian Premier League have been moved out of Bangalore.
- Daily Star – The BDR Special Court-3 in Feni sentenced 57 out of 62 mutiny accused jawans of 19 Rifles Battalion to different terms in prison. The rest five were acquitted of the allegation. It was the third judgment given in connection with the last year’s BDR mutiny.
Far East & Pacific
- Yonhap – North Korea on Saturday denied involvement in the recent sinking of a South Korean warship that left 38 sailors confirmed dead and eight others still missing, claiming such suspicions have been fabricated by the South Korean government.
- AKI – More than half the foreign terrorists based in the Philippines’s southern province of Mindanao had links to the Islamist terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, according to military intelligence. Documents obtained by Adnkronos International (AKI) show that 50 foreign militants have joined local Muslim rebels in their struggle for self-determination in Mindanao
- Zee News – Beijing: Chinese military war games in South China Sea this weekend deploying naval warships in an “unprecedented scale” showed Beijing’s capability to emerge as a full-fledged blue water Navy, military analysts said.
- AFP – Japan is boosting its intelligence resources devoted to China’s growing military, which it considers the top national security concern, the business daily Nikkei reported Sunday. The defence ministry-affiliated National Institute for Defence Studies (NIDS) has established a task force of six researchers to examine China’s national security strategy, the daily said.
- East Asia Forum – Japanese domestic politics of foreign bases
- Irrawaddy – A series of bomb exploded early on Saturday morning around the area of the Myitsone dam project in Kachin State, northern Burma, according to residents of Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital.
- Australia DoD – the Air Warfare Destroyers are the single biggest defence procurement ever attempted
Europe
- Warsaw Voice – The funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria will be held Sunday in the southern city of Krakow. The funeral service is due to begin at 2 pm in St. Mary’s Basilica in Kraków. Relatives and heads of state will be seated inside, while thousands of others will be watching the mass outside on large screens.
- UPI – France and Kuwait signed an agreement to develop nuclear energy in the Gulf country, a comeback for the French nuclear industry after it lost a key reactor deal in the United Arab Emirates.
- The Independent – Russia should be brought under “one security roof” with the West by allowing Moscow to playing a key role in “building and operating” a common, nuclear-defence shield, the Secretary-General of Nato has said.
- euronews – As a volcanic ash cloud disrupted air travel across Europe for a fourth day, airlines called on the authorities to reopen the continent’s airspace
Africa
- AKI – Al-Qaeda recruiters are targeting children and aiming to make Somali suicide bombing a multi-generational family affair. A new recruitment video by Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based Al-Qaeda branch that operates in the Horn of Africa, opens with an image of a child playing with a toy gun
- Garowe – At least 3 people, two of them soldiers have been killed and over 5 others injured in gunfire exchange between two Somali government troops in the restive capital Mogadishu, witnesses and officials said. The fighting erupted in the capital’s Medina district, where one side was reportedly barring soldiers from robbing civilians
- Mareeg – Tense situation between two Somali clan militias has risen in parts of Nugal region in north Somalia, just as the residents say that fighting is on the verge of to break out there, witnesses said on Saturday.
- House of Lords EU Committee – Combating Somali Piracy: the EU’s Naval Operation Atalanta (report)
- VOA – The legitimacy of Sudan’s elections has been thrown into further doubt following reports from observation teams the election will not meet international standards. Opposition parties in Khartoum say the vote was rigged and that they will not accept its results.
- Khaleej Times – Al-Qaeda-linked militants released in northern Mali Friday two Italians taken hostage nearly four months ago, a regional government official said
- LA Times – “Shoot him in the chest, not the head,” said the Nigerian security official as two men on crutches were forced to lie in the street in the northern city of Maiduguri last year. “I want his hat.” Another security official raised his gun and shot the two in the back at point-blank range. The killings were captured on video and recently aired on Al Jazeera television, then posted on YouTube, causing a national scandal.
- Radio Netherlands – Zimbabwe marks 30 years of independence on 18 April, but events over the past decade have almost overshadowed the euphoria felt when the British colony of Rhodesia ceased to exist and a new African nation was born. Three decades of Robert Mugabe’s rule have seen “the jewel of Africa turning into a sob story”, says a top trade union activist.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates meets with the leaders of St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada and St. Vincent to discuss regional security cooperation under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative in Bridgetown, Barbados, April 16, 2010. (photo by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison)
The Global War
- Virginian-Pilot – Where are all the sailors? That’s usually the first question visitors ask when they step aboard the Independence. The littoral combat ship’s unusually small crew – it takes 40 sailors to operate the $700 million vessel – is only the beginning of what sets it apart.
- US Navy – The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead visited the naval forces of India April 10-16. The purpose of CNO’s visit was to strengthen the maritime partnership between the nations, visit training facilities and continue increased cooperation with the Indian navy.
- Major Seth Wheeler – Pseudo-Operations to Neutralize Extremist Networks, Insurgents, and Terrorists (PDF)
- Flightglobal – US Army predicts shift to nearly all unmanned aircraft by 2035
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2 April, 2010 (01:22) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 2 April 2010.
United States & the Americas
- Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today targeted the financial and support networks of al Qai’da in Iraq (AQI), al-Qai’da and Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) by designating two Europe-based individuals for providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism under Executive Order 13224
- AP – The Defense Department denied that the United States test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads during a joint military exercise with Saudi Arabia
- HS Today – A team of CIA counterintelligence officials recently visited the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and concluded that CIA interrogators face the risk of exposure to al Qaeda through inmates’ contacts with defense attorneys, according to U.S. officials.
- Canadian Press – Opposition politicians and reporters will spend Easter weekend hunting for new details on Canada’s handling of Afghan detainees, as the government dumped another 6,200 pages of documents in the House of Commons.
- BusinessWeek – Venezuela and Russia announced a joint venture to drill for heavy crude oil in eastern Venezuela, saying they expect to start producing 50,000 barrels a day this year. A new joint company will be run by state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, and five Russian companies, and will pump heavy crude in the Orinoco River basin, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said
- Reuters – Russian oil major Rosneft is seeking to buy stakes in four German refineries from Venezuela as part of a Kremlin drive to encourage its firms to own assets all over the world, industry sources told Reuters.
- El Universal – Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay visits to Brazil, Chile and Venezuela in April, announced on Thursday the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Columbia Reports – Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that his nation will provide information on the case of eight Colombians detained by Venezuela for espionage “when we have something to say.” Bogota publication El Tiempo now reports that eight Colombians – family members who own an ice cream factory in the Venezuelan state of Barinas – have been detained. A Venezuelan army search of the business’ premises turned up Colombian military identity cards belonging to two of those arrested.
- MercoPress – High-quality oil in once guerrilla infested Colombian jungle
- COHA – Sunday’s Bolivian Regional Election Primer: MAS Solidifies its Ruling Status as the Political Opposition Falters
- CBS – Dozens of gunmen mounted rare and apparently coordinated attacks targeting two army garrisons in northern Mexico, touching off firefights that killed 18 attackers. The attempts to blockade soldiers inside their bases – part of seven near-simultaneous attacks across two northern states – appeared to mark a serious escalation in Mexico’s drug war, in which cartel gunmen attacked in unit-size forces armed with bulletproof vehicles, dozens of hand grenades and assault rifles
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Kremlin – Medvedev held a meeting with leaders of republics within North Caucasus Federal District and law enforcement agencies. The President outlined five key tasks for fighting terrorism in the Caucasus: strengthening law enforcement agencies; conducting preemptive strikes against terrorists; helping those who have decided to break off ties with the bandits; developing social and economic spheres in the region; and strengthening moral and spiritual values.
- Asia Times – Twin explosions in Russia’s troubled Dagestan region this week carry the hallmark of Lashkar al-Zil and 313 Brigade mastermind Ilyas Kashmiri. Following the two blasts in Moscow two days earlier, they also point to a new guerrilla offensive that spells trouble for the United States and its allies as well as for Russia
- RFERL – The Novosibirsk garrison court in western Siberia today sentenced an officer to four and 1/2 years in jail for bullying that led to a soldier’s suicide, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports. Officer Vitaly Rasulov was found guilty of beating and intimidating three enlisted servicemen, one of whom committed suicide last year.
- RIA Novosti – The Russian Defense Ministry does not expect any problems with the military draft due to a sharp drop in birth rates in Russia in the 1990s, a senior military official said on Thursday. “Russia will have at least 3 million potential draftees in the next few years despite the “demographic hole” [of the 1990s],” said Col. Gen. Vasily Smirnov, the Chief of the Main Organization and Mobilization Directorate of the Russian General Staff.
- RIA Novosti – The number of Russian conscripts evading military service has significantly increased while the courts refuse to bring them to justice, a deputy chief of the General Staff said on Thursday. Some 270,000 conscripts are expected to be called up during this spring’s draft that starts on April 1. Just more than 271,000 conscripts joined the armed forces during the fall draft, while some 305,000 people were drafted in spring 2009.
- Barents Observer – In a bid to speed up the exploration of the shelf, Russian authorities are ready to let in foreign companies. Currently, only Russian state-controlled companies with experiences from shelf development are entitled to get offshore field licenses. That has given Gazprom and Rosneft a monopoly position on the country’s vast shelf
- Prague Watchdog – In 2014 the Winter Olympics will be held in the Russian republic of Krasnodar Krai, a territory which Circassian groups currently say is the very heartland of their unrecognized genocide. With an ethnic Circassian political movement on the rise, Dokka Umarov, the self-proclaimed Amir of the Caucasus Emirate insurgent group, seems to be showing attempts at the exploitation of this chain of events. With Monday’s suicide bombings circumventing Moscow’s security apparatus, one has to question the authenticity of the Kremlin’s assurances that the Sochi winter games are indeed invulnerable to attack.
- EurasiaNet – Aviation could prove a fresh field for diplomatic conflict between Georgia and Russia after an announcement by the de facto government of breakaway Abkhazia that it plans to reopen an Abkhaz airport with Moscow’s assistance. Georgian officials tell EurasiaNet.org that they expect the European Union to help Tbilisi block such assistance — an expectation that the EU has not confirmed.
- AgriMarket – In the third decade of May, 2010, Kazakhstan plans to launch own grain terminal in the Caspian Sea port Amirabad (Iran), declared Asilghan Mamitbekov, the head of the national holding “KazAgro” JSC. According to him, on May 15-20, 2010, the company will open the first line of elevator capacities of the terminal. According to A.Mamitbekov, launching of the grain terminal will become the finishing link of foundation of the transport and logistics chain of Kazakh grain exports on the market of Iran and the countries of the Caucasus region
Middle East
- Al Sumaria – An Awakening council member was killed and five others were wounded in a mortar round that hit Al Mansourieh District, eastern Baaquba. Unknown gunmen raided the house of Mohammed Jallab Ahmad, a Health Ministry official, in Al Salikh region, northern Baghdad, on Wednesday night. Ahmad was killed in his house backyard
- Reuters – A leading Shi’ite Muslim party said on Thursday it will not join any Iraqi government without Iyad Allawi, a move that could boost the chances of the election winner of becoming a prime minister
- The National – Iran has yet to respond officially to the surprisingly strong display of political muscle by a secular, nationalist coalition in neighbouring Iraq’s general elections. Tehran’s seemingly sullen silence reinforces the impression that it is fuming.
- Aswat al-Iraq – Police forces arrested a leading member of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq for the area west of Ramadi city. “The arrest operation relied on intelligence tip-offs,” the source said.
- Aswat al-Iraq – “A force from the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD) captured on late Wednesday (March 31) Subhi Awad, a leading member of the so-called the 1920 Revolution Brigades, in Yayeji neighborhood in al-Huweija district, southwest of Kirkuk,” KDPD chief Brig. Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The man is ‘the first official’ of the brigades in southwest of Kirkuk,” he added, pointing out that the operation was launched in light of intelligence information.The 1920 Revolution Brigades (the Kata’eb Thawrat al-Ishreen in Arabic) are armed factions that splintered from al-Qaeda network and joined the U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces to fight al-Qaeda.
- Press TV – Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has emphasized on the necessity of backing Hezbollah resistance movement in his talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
- SANA – Jumblatt stressed that the meeting wouldn’t be the last one, adding that he would ask Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi to go ahead with pushing forward the Syrian-Lebanese relations. He thanked all of those who contributed to holding this meeting, particularly Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Party Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
- NOW Lebanon – An-Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt was accompanied on his Wednesday Damascus trip by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s political aide, Hussein Khalil, and by Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa. According to the daily, none of Jumblatt’s party members or bloc MPs accompanied him on his visit.
- Al Manar – Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah was Al-Manar TV’s guest Wednesday night in the talk show ‘What’s Next” with Amr Nassef.
- Jerusalem Post – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel, Army Radio reported. Lavrov told Hamas’s leader in Syria, Khaled Mashaal, in a phone conversation that the organization must stop the “unconscionable firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel,” AFP reported, quoting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Haaretz – Egyptian security forces uncovered a massive arms cache in the central Sinai Peninsula before dawn on Thursday allegedly intended for smuggling into the Gaza Strip, according to the Egyptian daily Al-Yum a-Saba
- Al Jazeera – Up to 40 prisoners have escaped after a bomb exploded at a prison in the southern Yemeni city of Daleh, police say. They said a dispute broke out on Thursday between policemen and a group of prison inmates, identified as sympathisers of a secessionist movement and arrested for taking part in a protest in Daleh
Iran
- Fars – Iran has been re-elected as the vice-chair of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
- Press TV – Iran is celebrating the 31st anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic — a new Islamic system that replaced a US-backed monarchy. On April 1, 1979, less than two months after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, millions of Iranians cast their ballots in a national referendum on a new system of government
- RSF – Reporters Without Borders is extremely worried about the appalling conditions in which Iranian prisoners of conscience, including many journalists, are being held. The authorities continue to detain them arbitrarily even when they are ailing and in very poor physical or psychological health
Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard Gaines, equipment operator, dumps clay from a Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement dump to form the road that will serve as a causeway used to cross the Helmand River
South Asia
- Michael Yon – Shortages of drinking water affected combat operations. For centuries, Afghans have dug underground irrigation tunnels called karez. The lines of craters in the photo above are shafts into a karez system. The shafts, which can be hundreds of feet deep, are used to lift out soil and stone while digging a karez. Karez can take years to build and are sometimes miles long. They are described as intricate constructions, often built by teams for hire, using father-to-son knowledge passed down through the centuries. (photos)
- CNN – Inside a Marine’s Javelin missile mission; Seven days into Operation Moshtarak and Taliban snipers continue to be the bane of the Marines’ existence. Just the day before, the Marines had engaged in a ferocious firefight that starts in the late afternoon and goes well into night. On this day they take casualties. One Marine dies.
- Defense Tech – The overland route through Pakistan, given the name “Apache,” for obvious reasons, breaks into two points that flow into Afghanistan, at the “Chaman gate,” in the south that goes to Kandahar, and at the “Torkham gate” in the north, also known as the Khyber Pass. “We recognized that that was, quite frankly, very tenuous ground line of communication that we didn’t want to put all of our eggs in,” said Air Force Major General Robert McMahon, the man in charge of moving troops and gear into Afghanistan, yesterday on a conference call.
- AFPS – Afghan and international forces killed a roadside bomber in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province today, military officials reported.
- Pentagon – Pfc. James L. Miller, 21, of Yakima, Wash., died March 29 in Dashat, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device
- UK MoD – It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce that a soldier from 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards has been killed in Afghanistan today, 1 April 2010. The soldier died as a result of an explosion that happened in the Babaji District of central Helmand province, this morning.
- IWPR – In post-Taleban Afghanistan, illegal dog-fighting attracts rich and poor and high-stakes gambling is rife
- Dawn – Troops stormed militant positions and helicopters destroyed vehicles carrying insurgents near the Afghan border Thursday, killing 28 suspected militants and forcing thousands of civilians to flee, officials said.
- Dawn – Taliban leader Mullah Toofan has survived an attempt on his life while travelling in the Orakzai agency. He was going from Mir Kalamkhel to Arkhanjo when he survived an IED blast.
- AKI – The Pakistan Taliban will continue to wage ‘holy war’ against those who support the United States, the militant group’s spokesman Azam Tariq reiterated on Thursday.
- Geo – The United Nations on Thursday rejected Pakistan”s request to reopen the independent probe into the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, saying there is no need to include any further information as the report is “complete”. “The Commissioners have informed the United Nations that the report is complete,” UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told journalists here.
- IRNA – The United States and Israel are the main countries, which are hatching conspiracies against Muslim world.” A network is established in Afghanistan, which is hatching conspiracies against its neighboring countries including Iran, Pakistan, China,” said General Mirza Aslam Beg, Former Pakistan Army Chief, on Wednesday, while talking to IRNA.
- Khaleej Times – India blames Pakistan-based militants for an attack on its citizens in Kabul in February, a government source said Thursday, heightening concern about a South Asian ‘proxy war’ in Afghanistan.
- Times of India – Six Lashkar-e-Taiba militants of Pakistani origin, who had escaped from Triyath forest after a brief encounter three days ago, were killed by security forces after they tracked them down in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
- Michael Spacek – Zone of Exclusion: Inside the Maoist Insurgency in India
Far East & Pacific
- Hui Zhang, Washington Quarterly – China’s Perspective on a Nuclear-Free World
- Drew Thompson, Foreign Policy – Think Again: China’s Military
- Reuters – Bank of China, the country’s third-biggest lender by market value, said on Thursday it planned to invest up to 6 billion yuan ($878 million) in a state-owned firm building a high-speed railway linking Shanghai and Beijing.
- The Economist – In recent weeks, a speech on social unrest by a prominent Chinese scholar, Yu Jianrong, has been widely circulated on the internet in China. In it Mr Yu describes the emergence in recent years of a new type of social unrest, which he calls “venting incidents”: brief, unorganised outbursts of public rage against the authorities or the wealthy. China’s efforts to enforce “rigid stability”, he argues, were not sustainable and could result in “massive social catastrophe”. Even government officials, he notes, are giving warning in private of worse to come.
- VOA- Some Indonesian Islamic groups advocate closer ties with China to offset the United States’ influence in Asia. Indonesian political analysts and religious leaders say these groups reflect opposition to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and recognition of China growing power in Asia.
- Yonhap – South Korea said Thursday it did not detect any North Korean submarines near the countries’ western sea border on the night a Navy vessel was struck by an unexplained blast and sank, lowering the possibility of an attack from the communist nation.
- New Zealand Herald – New Zealand Navy ships are calling into US ports for the first time since the ANZUS bust up over 25 years ago.The frigate Te Kaha and tanker Endeavour will make civilian visits to Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego and Honolulu
- Bangkok Post – The army on Thursday denied Cambodia’s claims that it has won a victory over Thailand in their border conflict and that 88 Thai soldiers were killed in clashes along the disputed frontier during the past year. Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, the army spokesman, said ony three Thai soldiers had been killed, and a few more wounded.
- Irrawaddy – Following a month of relative quiet at the Sino-Burmese border while the military regime focused on election laws and the political situation in the country, attention turns once again to the border guard force (BGF) issue and the regime’s attempts to bring the ethnic cease-fire groups under its command.
Europe
- Foreign Affairs Cmte, House of Commons – However, the use of the phrase ‘the special relationship’ in its historical sense, to describe the totality of the ever-evolving UKUS relationship, is potentially misleading, and we recommend that its use should be avoided…. we expressed serious concern about Diego Garcia’s use by the US for the purposes of extraordinary rendition… (PDF)
- Vladimir Socor – French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s US visit has carefully been protected against any fallout from his proposed sale of Mistral-class power-projection warships to Russia. Ahead of Sarkozy’s visit, Moscow moved to embarrass him. It punctured some key French assumptions about this deal and undermined French reassurances to third parties about its possible consequences.
- Japan Times – Japan and Poland signed a memorandum to promote cooperation in the civil use of atomic power, with Tokyo aiming to have Japanese firms receive orders to build nuclear reactors in the Eastern European country
- Prague Monitor – The Czech military yesterday presented the artillery radar system Arthur that the government plans to send to Afghanistan to protect the Polish base in the Ghazni province.
- Balkan Insight – Bulgaria’s ruling party GERB and its rightist allies have failed to muster enough votes in parliament to push the impeachment process of President Georgi Parvanov through to the Constitutional Court.
- Spiegel – They may be simple flagstones, but they were once part of Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat in Obersalzberg. Now, a historian’s claim that stones from the dictator’s villa were used for the construction of a local chapel has many in the region up in arms
Africa
- Garowe – At least 25 people, mostly fighters from both sides, are killed while dozens others wounded on Wednesday after inter-clan fighting broke out in a village in central Somali region of Mudug, reports say. The fighting started early Wednesday in Barag-Iise village, 80 km (50 miles) north of Haradheere town, a pirate stronghold where two clans, Dir and Habargidir residing from the same area disputed over animal watering point
- US Navy – USS Nicholas (FFG 47) captured suspected pirates April 1 after exchanging fire, sinking a skiff and confiscating a suspected mother ship
- Hurriyet – A Turkish frigate intercepted a skiff in the Gulf of Aden and captured nine Somali pirates who were suspected of preparing to attack ships, the military said Thursday.
- AP – Southern Sudan’s main political party withdrew its candidate from the country’s upcoming presidential election, a surprise move that erodes the credibility of the nation’s first multiparty election in decades.
- Sudan Tribune – The Sudanese opposition reacted with anger and surprise after the ex-Southern rebel group decided to pull its presidential candidate leaving them feeling betrayed as speculations raged on a secret deal with the ruling party.
- Jamestown – Salafi-Jihadis in Mauritania at the Center of al-Qaeda’s Strategy
- Afrol – The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), one of Africa’s most brutal rebel groups, now have attacked civilians in a fourth country, the Central African Republic. The looting and massacring rebels are becoming a regional threat to security and stability.
- Afrique en ligne – ECOWAS Commission President James Victor Gbeho has declared that the ‘era of coups is over’ in West Africa, following years of political instability highlighted by military intervention in the governance of member states
- PANA – In an unusually strong statement, ECOWAS Thursday warned of ‘robust response and dire consequences” if renegade troops in Guinea Bissau overthrow the country’s elected government. The warning came after mutinous soldiers seized the head of the country’s army and briefly detained Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr. in an apparent coup attempt in the West African nation, where the President was assassinated a year ago.
- LA Times – Nigeria’s “Taliban,” named for its heroes in a far-off land, could provide willing recruits for attacks on American targets, one of the group’s leaders boasted in a rare interview that had the trappings of a spy novel.
- Daily Champion – Repentant Niger Delta militants yesterday issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to implement the second phase of the amnesty programme. According to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), militants will resume attacks on oil installations and selected areas, if government fails to implement the programme within seven days
- Times of Zambia – The re-opening of the Munali Nickel Mine has brightened hopes of a speedy recovery in Zambia’s little-developed southern town of Mazabuka after a year of the mine’s closure and job losses. President Rupiah Banda last week commissioned the restart of the country’s only nickel mine, as the new investor – Jinchuan Group Ltd, China’s largest nickel producer – took over majority shareholding with investments amounting to about US$37 million.
- China MFA – The launching ceremony of the “China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Program” was held in Beijing on March 30
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower cruises alongside the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney during a refueling at sea. Carney is assigned to the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Gina Wollman)
The Global War
- Mark Bowden – At 57, General David Petraeus has revolutionized the way America fights its wars, starting with the surge in Iraq and continuing into his current command, with responsibility for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen. Charting Petraeus’s relentless challenge to the institution he reveres—the U.S. Army—and to himself, the author hears about the unceasing drive, groundbreaking methods, and darkest moments of a four-star rebel.
- UK MoD – The Defence Cultural Specialist Unit which deploys military specialists in Afghan culture and language to advise commanders on the ground, has been launched today, Thursday 1 April 2010. The specialists will help build a picture of Helmandi society for commanders in Task Force Helmand and battlegroups across the province to help them identify and understand issues relating to the local cultural, political, economic, social and historical environment to help commanders make better and more informed decisions
- US Army – Senior leaders and planners from the Indian Army, U.S. Army, Pacific, Marine Forces Pacific, Special Operations Command, and the Department of the Army met at the Indian Army’s Western Command headquarters in Chandigarh, India to discuss the future of bilateral ground and amphibious engagements between the two countries during the 14th Executive Steering Group, March 22-23
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31 March, 2010 (00:57) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 31 March 2010.
United States & the Americas
- Pentagon background briefing – U.S. civilian and security assistance to Pakistan totaled over $4 billion in the last three years. This assistance included support for medical aid, school refurbishment, bridge and well reconstruction, food distribution, agriculture and education projects. The United States has also provided — and I’m sure you are aware — 14 F-16 fighters — aircraft, five fast patrol boats, 115 self-propelled howitzer field artillery cannons, and more than 450 vehicles for the Frontier Corps, hundreds of night-vision goggles, day and night scopes, radios, and thousands of protective vests and first aid items for Pakistan’s security forces.
- HS Today – Questions about foreign complicity in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in downtown Oklahoma City for which Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted, were disclosed Friday in a ruling by US District court judge Clark Waddoups on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the CIA for the CIA’s refusal to completely declassify records it has acknowledged it possesses that pertain to the case.
- DNI – Press Briefing by Dr. Mathew J. Burrows, National Intelligence Council (NIC) Counselor and Director of the Analysis and Production Staff (PDF) “I’ll give you a statement here on some of the top threats we see and give you some idea of why we see them as top threats…”
- State Dept – Since this is my first chance to address you as Legal Adviser, I thought I would speak to three issues. First, the nature of my job as Legal Adviser. Second, to discuss the strategic vision of international law that we in the Obama Administration are attempting to implement. Third and finally, to discuss particular issues that we have grappled with in our first year in a number of high-profile areas: the International Criminal Court, the Human Rights Council, and what I call The Law of 9/11: detentions, use of force, and prosecutions.
- DOJ - Samuel Abrahaley Fessahazion, 23, an Eritrean national, has pleaded guilty to helping smuggle illegal aliens to the United States for private financial gain. “By bringing this smuggler to justice, we have broken a chain that runs from Africa to South and Central America, directly into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer
- National Post – Prime Minister Stephen Harper ruled out an extension of Canadian troops in Afghanistan past 2011 during a meeting on Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
- Miami Herald – The gunmen arrived in the Amazon dusk, circling the house where Sister Leonora was hiding, rifles and pistols poking out the windows of three muddy pickup trucks. A violent death was meant for the diminutive 64-year-old Roman Catholic nun, who has spent decades defending poor, landless workers – and collecting countless threats from ranchers she blocked from stealing Amazon land.
- Columbia Reports – Two Colombians and one Canadian-Colombian were detained by Venezuelan authorities and accused of espionage Monday, after they took photos of a telecommunications base during a vacation in the Venezuelan state of Maracay.
- El Universal – From Tuesday, Venezuelan National Guard and Army troops took over 38 gas pumps in the state of Táchira (on the border with Colombia) to prevent “destabilizing actions” related to the supply of fuel.
- MercoPress – Bolivia is in the last leg ahead of next Sunday’s governor election when president Evo Morales expects his party to keep control over seven of the nine provinces in dispute while the opposition will try to gain lost ground in recent votes
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Putin – Today Moscow is in mourning for the victims of the terrorist attacks on the metro yesterday. I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of those who were killed. We will do everything we can to help and support the victims… We know that those responsible are lying low now, but it is a matter of honour for our law enforcement agencies to pull them out of their sewers and expose them to the harsh light of justice. I’m confident that this will be done.
- Russia MFA – Lavrov: The point is that there are theories according to which one of the organizations active in the Caucasus was behind it. There is enough information that the terrorist underground, which is entrenched in Afghanistan, on the Afghan-Pakistani border, has very close ties with both Central Asia and the Caucasus. That requires international efforts. Our investigation will be carried out efficiently and with maximum speed.
- Russia Profile – The reason they chose to bomb Lubyanka was “symbolic,” said Sergei Markedonov, an independent political analyst and Caucasus expert, because the FSB’s headquarters are based at Lubyanka. Meanwhile, the bomb at Park Kultury, four stops south of Lubyanka, was detonated on the Sokolnicheskaya line used by the FSB to get to work. “The timing as well – it’s the normal time for servicemen to be going to work,” said Andrei Soldatov, an independent security analyst. The Park Kultury bomb may also have been originally intended for the Oktyabrskaya metro station, one stop away, where the Interior Ministry headquarters are located.
- CNN – Russian police released photographs Tuesday of two women suspected of being the suicide bombers who killed at least 39 people on the Moscow metro a day earlier.
- Moscow Times – The Federal Security Service on Tuesday captured a high-profile rebel leader and police mole in the Chelyabinsk region, a day after 500 law enforcement officers conducted a raid against him and suspected terrorists in neighboring Bashkortostan. Bashir Pliyev, a 44-year-old ethnic Ingush, known among rebels as the emir of Bashkiria, escaped the initial operation but was detained by FSB officers on Tuesday, Interfax reported, citing local security officials. Ingush authorities say Pliyev was close to reputed Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, who was killed by federal troops in 2006.
- CFR – CSIS: Violence in the North Caucasus; This CSIS publication presents data from the entire 2009 period, indicating that violence has escalated since 2008 in the North Caucasus, which includes Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, and Dagestan.
- RIA Novosti – St. Petersburg’s Severnaya Verf shipyard will float out on Wednesday a new corvette featuring stealth technology, a Russian Navy spokesman said.
- UPI – Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is examining gas production and pipelines in North Africa to complement its European foothold, officials said. Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said expanding the footprint of Gazprom in North Africa was a strategic priority, ITAR-Tass reports
- BNE – The United Arab Emirates state-owned Al Hilal Bank is close to obtaining a banking licence to operate on the Kazakh market, its directors have confirmed. The first Islamic bank to set up in the Central Asian country, Al Hilal plans to invest $1bn over the next four years
- EurasiaNet – Some state employees are feeling squeezed as Tajikistan’s government presses ahead with a plan to construct a massive hydropower dam. Teachers, for example, are quietly complaining about being compelled to contribute to the Rogun project
- RFERL – Salmon Langariev, a legendary former commander of the People’s Front militia that brought Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to power in 1992, has died in the southern city of Kulob at the age of 84, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.
- APA – 92 years have passed since the genocide committed by the members of Armenian Dashnak party in concert with Bolsheviks against Azerbaijanis, APA reports.
Middle East
- Al Sumaria – Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Kamal Kirkuki announced that Kurdistan has accepted Iraqi elections results despite many hindrances encountered in the political process. Kirkuki called to form a government that includes all parties and respects the Constitution
- CentCom – Leadership from the 10th Iraqi Army Division and the Iraqi Receivership Secretariat accepted the complete return of Contingency Operating Site Hunter in southern Maysan province from U.S. Forces, March 26. During a small ceremony, the Record of Return was signed and the Government of Iraq took control of the facility and adjacent airplane landing strip. At the conclusion of the ceremony, all U.S. Soldiers departed the base.
- Press TV – Iran and Iraq have planned to build an industrial town at Bashmaq border which connects Iran’s Kurdistan to the Iraqi Sulaimaniyah.
- France24 – Twenty years after the end of the ruthless Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), unexploded landmines continue to maim and kill those charged with clearing them. The authorities have been accused of botching early mine-clearing efforts in order to allow big oil companies to resume drilling operations as quickly as possible – a decision mine-clearers are still paying the price for
- Al Arabiya – A Palestinian teenager was killed and 12 people were wounded, including children, as Israeli troops opened fire at “Land Day” demonstrators near the Gaza border on Tuesday, Palestinian medics said
- Haaretz – Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Tuesday denied Palestinian media reports that it shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy trying to cross from Gaza into Israel.
- NOW Lebanon – An anonymous source told Al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s appearance on Al-Manar television Wednesday will be to send the public a message that involving Hezbollah in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will lead to a “political May 7 battle.”
- Washington Institute – The tribunal’s decision to interview Hizballah in connection with the 2005 murder appears to confirm a 2009 report in Der Speigel — corroborated more recently by Le Monde — implicating the Shiite militia in the conspiracy. A shift in the short-term focus of the investigation from Syria to Hizballah will have a profound impact on domestic politics in Lebanon, and potentially on U.S.-Lebanese relations.
- Times Online – A team of French and Moroccan divers have found the body of an Emirati sheikh who headed the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, four days after the ultralight glider he was travelling in crashed into a lake near Rabat.
- Hurriyet – Three soldiers were killed and two were injured Tuesday when a land mine exploded in the southeastern province of Hakkari during a security sweep
- Saba – Two Pakistani warships and a submarine arrived on Tuesday in Aden port for several-day visit.
Iran
- Washington Times – Iran is poised to begin producing nuclear weapons after its uranium program expansion in 2009, even though it has had problems with thousands of its centrifuges, according to a newly released CIA report.
- Payvand – An Iranian diplomat who had been kidnapped by gunmen in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2008 has been freed by Iranian intelligence forces and brought to home, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced in Tehran on Tuesday.
- Radio Zamaneh – Iran accuses US and Israeli intelligence services of supporting the kidnappers of Heshmatollah Attarzadeh Niaki, the Iranian diplomat whom Islamic Republic announced to have rescued today.
- IRNA – Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to leave Tehran for Algiers on Wednesday to confer with the country’s high ranking officials on expansion of mutual relations as well as regional developments.
Afghan Army soldiers patrol near the village of Kusheh, Afghanistan, March 24, 2010. The Afghan soldiers have been partnering with U.S. Army soldiers to help bring stability to part of Khost province. The U.S. soldiers are assigned to the !st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment. (photo by Spc. Spencer Case)
South Asia
- AFPS – In Paktika province’s Bermal district last night, several militants were killed when they threatened a combined Afghan-international security team. In Wardak province’s Sayyidabad district last night, an Afghan-international force captured a Taliban weapons facilitator accused of buying and selling large amounts of weapons, munitions and explosives for other militant networks
- UK MoD – The Commander of Task Force Helmand said last week Sangin is perhaps the most challenging area in Afghanistan that British forces are operating in. Major Tim Harris has been operating in the area for the last few months and here describes the progress that is slowly being made.
- Australia DoD – Three Australian and two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have been wounded in separate IED attacks in Afghanistan
- VOA – U.S. officials say international forces in Afghanistan plan to launch an anti-Taliban offensive in southern Kandahar province in June. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the goal is to push the Taliban out of Kandahar city before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in August.
- Asia Times – Instead, there were 53 strikes from Predator and Reaper drones last year, the first year of the Obama administration, a rise of almost 50% from the 36 in 2008, the last year of the Bush administration. The 2010 total is on track to be three times the 2008 level. Clearly, the new administration places more emphasis on drones in its war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban
- Dawn – Taliban militants set fire to a boys’ school Tuesday in northwest Pakistan nearly a year after the military launched a major assault to evict militants from the area, police said.
- AKI – The growing influence of the Taliban has forced cinemas to close in northern Pakistan despite support for the film industry from the secular provincial government in the North West Frontier Province. Many cinema owners are demolishing their theatres and replacing them with multi-storey commercial plazas.
- Geo – Thirty-one militants were killed during security forces operation in Orakzai Agency. According to sources, security forces operation is underway in different parts of Orakzai Agency. Fighter jets pounded militants’ positions in Arghanja area killing 21 militants and injuring 22. A training center has also destroyed during the action. Earlier, ten militants were killed by security forces in Anjani area. At least 150 militants have been killed during a weeklong operation in Mashti, Arghanja, Bal Kot, Talay, Waziray and Ikka Khel
- MEMRI – Pakistani security forces have captured a key commander of Al-Qaeda-linked militant organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi from Karachi, where several key Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders were detained recently, according to an Urdu-language daily
- United Nations – The Secretary-General has accepted an urgent request by the President of Pakistan to delay the presentation of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto until 15 April 2010
- Times of India – Three militants and an army jawan were killed and two policemen were injured in two separate gunbattles in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, security officials said
Far East & Pacific
- The Australian – China expressed serious concern about Australia’s “irresponsible” criticism of the jail sentences handed out to Stern Hu and his three colleagues for bribery and stealing commercial secrets. As the diplomatic row between Canberra and Beijing escalated, Rio Tinto remained confident that none of the information it received from Hu and the three others could be classed as secret, despite a Shanghai court ruling the executives passed on sensitive information during iron ore negotiations.
- Amnesty International – Amnesty International on Tuesday challenged the Chinese authorities to reveal how many people they execute and sentence to death, as the organization published its world overview of the death penalty for 2009. In a challenge to China’s lack of transparency, Amnesty International has decided not to publish its own minimum figures for Chinese executions and death sentences in 2009
- Chosun Ilbo – Former North Korean soldiers who defected to South Korea on Monday claimed “underwater suicide squads” may have been responsible for the mysterious sinking of a South Korean naval vessel on Friday.
- Japan Times – Senior officials from Japan, South Korea and China are to meet on South Korea’s southern island of Jeju on Friday to prepare for a trilateral summit and foreign minister talks, a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said. South Korea will host the trilateral summit and the foreign ministers’ meeting this year.
- Xinhua – China is ready to work with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to deepen bilateral exchanges and cooperation, so as to bolster the development of the relations between the two countries and militaries
- Bangkok Post – Vietnam and the United States signed a pact on Tuesday described as a key foundation for development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.
- Jakarta Post – The plan to revive a regional military command in Kalimantan later this year has raised the eyebrows of international community, particularly China, Malaysia, and Australia, Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Rear Marshall Sagom Tamboen said Tuesday. Sagom, however, said there was nothing peculiar in the reactivation of Mulawarman military command, which will oversee East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. The current Tanjungpura military command will oversee West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
Europe
- Guardian – A cross-party group of MPs will call today for a review of the way arms sales are approved after the government admitted British equipment was “almost certainly” used in the assault on Gaza last year. “It is regrettable that arms exports to Israel were almost certainly used in Operation Cast Lead [the attack on Gaza],” the Commons committee on strategic export controls says in a report published. “This is in direct contravention to the UK government’s policy that UK arms exports to Israel should not be used in the occupied territories.”
- Committees on Arms Export Controls – The Committees also concluded that the Government must learn lessons from the necessary revocation in 2009 of licences for arms exports to Israel and Sri Lanka and take a longer term view when assessing the suitability of exports to less stable countries and regions.
- European Union – Following an examination of the safety of Iran Air’s operations into the EU through ramp checks of its aircraft in the Community, evidence of serious incidents and accidents suffered by the carrier and insufficient oversight from the authority over the past year, the Air Safety Committee concluded unanimously that the operations of Iran Air to the EU should be restricted. The carrier will only be allowed to use certain aircraft for flights to Europe. The Commission will visit Iran over the next months to verify the oversight of the Iranian civil aviation organisation and the safety situation of Iran Air.
- NYT – Just as the German chancellor arrived in Ankara on Monday for bilateral talks, fraught with differences over education and accession to the European Union, a fresh rift seemed to have emerged over policies toward Greece, Turkey’s regional rival. Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s chief negotiator with the European Union, has criticized Germany, along with France, for seeking to sell military equipment to Greece while pressing the government in Athens to make drastic public spending cuts as a result of its dire financial crisis. The pointed critique of Berlin and Paris was made in an interview last week in Brussels.
- RIA Novosti – The Russian and Greek navies will conduct joint exercises in 2010 as part of a bilateral military cooperation action plan, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
- AP – A Dutch citizen convicted of conspiring to kill Americans with roadside bombs in the Iraq war was flown back to the Netherlands Tuesday to serve his sentence, his lawyer said. A court in Washington, D.C., sentenced Wesam al-Delaema last April to 25 years. He is expected to serve less than that in the Netherlands, in line with normal Dutch sentences and detention regulations.
- Canada DND – The Government of Canada has announced the end of Canadian Forces (CF) deployments in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the close-out of Operation BRONZE and the return of the deployed team, Task Force Balkans, to Canada. The last of a long series of missions in the central Balkan nation, Operation BRONZE began in 2004. For the last year, Task Force Balkans has comprised five officers and one non-commissioned member serving at NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo
- Balkan Insight – The author of a disputed text published in the British newspaper The Sunday Times has told Balkan Insight that he did indeed speak with the head of the Macedonian Islamic Community, Sulejman Rexhepi, while Rexhepi’s office has claimed that the leader did not speak with the journalist and did not make any claims about the control of Skopje mosques by radical Islamists
- euobserver – Despite a rolling series of scandals, Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition was set to snatch four regions away from the centre-left in regional elections, according to unconfirmed results. But the two-day elections were marked by a striking abstention rate and a sharp growth for the anti-immigrant Northern League, particularly in traditionally left-wing bastions in central Italy
- BusinessWeek – Russian oligarch and ex-KGB officer Alexander Lebedev agreed to buy the Independent and the Independent on Sunday newspapers for 1 pound ($1.49), adding more U.K. titles to his media portfolio
Africa
- Garowe – Somali pirates have reportedly hijacked at least 11 commercial boats bound for war-torn Somalia over the last 2 days. Somali traders reported that the eleven Mogadishu and Kismayo-bound commercial boats were seized in the last two days off Somali waters by the pirates
- ICG – Rigged Elections in Darfur and the Consequences of a Probable NCP Victory in Sudan
- Sudan Tribune – The leader of Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) accused Sudanese government of stalling the peace process in the Qatari capital and warned his group may return to war if talks fail.
- ynet – Authorities in Algieria arrested an Israeli Mossad agent and currently have him in custody, the Ennahar El Djadid daily reported Tuesday. The paper said the suspect was carrying a fake Spanish passport.
- Ennahar – According to corroborating sources, the Israeli spy arrested during the curent month in the neighbourhood in Hassi Messaoud, have succeeded to enter the oil zone thnaks to the help provided by four egyptian executives who work in the Egyptian Orascom Construction, a branch of Orascom Company specialized in construction, and has a design office in the area indicated above.
- BBC – A court in Mauritania has charged 20 people with being part of a drug-trafficking group linked to al-Qaeda’s North African wing.
- AP – The gleaming Nigerian naval patrol boat heaved across the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean in search of pirates. Beyond the crisp white hull, however, crew members in cheap sandals manned machine guns whose ammunition had rusted in the chambers. And a computer-guided gun on the bow had no ammo at all
- Daily Champion – Tension and suspense brewed in some parts of the north, particularly Maiduguri, Borno State, as the Nigerian police and immigration services were kept on red alert, as they received text messages threatening new religious violence by a radical Islamic sect
Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of U.S. 6th Fleet, shakes hands with Republic of Singapore navy Rear Adm. Bernard Miranda, commander of Combined Task Force-151. CTF-151 is the multinational task force that conducts counter-piracy operations in the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and Red Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Glen Upp)
The Global War
- Defense Tech – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love China’s Carrier Killing Missile
- Andrew Erickson – Last week, Adm. Robert Willard, the head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), made an alarming but little-noticed disclosure. China, he told legislators, was “developing and testing a conventional anti-ship ballistic missile based on the DF-21/CSS-5 [medium-range ballistic missile] designed specifically to target aircraft carriers.” What, exactly, does this mean?
- Heritage – One of the little-noticed actions in the recently concluded session of the Chinese National People’s Congress was the enactment of a National Defense Mobilization Law. In an age when conventional conflicts are planned to conclude in a matter of days or weeks, it is striking that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) should choose to ensure its readiness for a protracted war.
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26 March, 2010 (01:06) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 26 March 2010.
United States & the Americas
- Haaretz – As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week absorbing the full wrath of the Obama administration, the Pentagon and Israel’s defense establishment were in the process of sealing a large arms deal. According to the deal, Israel will purchase three new Hercules C-130J airplanes. The deal for the three aircrafts, designed by Lockheed Martin, are worth roughly a quarter billion dollars.
- HS Today – Managing competing claims for intelligence support is one of the biggest challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Intelligence Enterprise (IE), according to a report issued March 19 by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
- Navy Times – Seven F/A-18 Hornets have been grounded due to cracks found in the wing fasteners, but many of the aging fighter jets inspected during the past two weeks have returned to full flight status, a Navy official said. Naval Air Systems Command grounded 104 Navy and Marine F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets March 12 after inspectors discovered that parts of the airframes were developing cracks much earlier than engineers had thought.
- SFGate – Mexican authorities say they have arrested a major drug trafficker known as the “King of Heroin” for the massive amounts of drugs he moved into the U.S. each year. Police say that Jose Antonio Medina, nicknamed “Don Pepe,” was arrested in the western Mexican state of Michoacan on Wednesday. Medina worked for the La Familia cartel running a complex smuggling operation that hauled 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of heroin each month across the border and into Southern California.
- BusinessWeek – Venezuela’s electricity grid will remain “vulnerable” into 2011 as strained government finances delay the installation of generators and the maintenance of existing transmission lines, Eurasia Group said. A severe drought coupled with delayed projects forced President Hugo Chavez to declare a national electricity crisis last month. He ordered rolling blackouts in regions of the South American country and 20 percent power reductions by businesses in the capital city of Caracas.
- China Daily – East China Mineral Exploration and Development Bureau (ECE) is expected to acquire an iron ore mine in Brazil, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Thursday. The ECE signed an intent agreement with Bernardo de Mello on March 25, offering $1.2 billion to buy the entire property rights of the Jupiter project in Minas Gerais of northeastern Brazil, where most of Vale’s iron ore mines are located.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Sky – Two Russian bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, have been caught flying over British airspace. The unwelcome guests spent four hours flying over the Isle of Lewis despite being intercepted by two RAF jets. A pair of 111 squadron Tornado F3 fighters took of from RAF Leuchars in Fife to locate the supersonic Tu160 bombers in the Outer Hebrides.
- RIA Novosti – Two Russian Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers have carried out a 15-hour routine patrol mission over the Pacific, including near the U.S. Aleutian Islands, an Air Force spokesman said on Wednesday. “The Tu-95MS bombers left the Ukrainka air base [in the Amur region in Russia's Far East] on March 24 and successfully completed the air patrol mission,” Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.
- Barents Observer – Western oil giants are selling out and downscaling involvement in Russia as state influence over the sector is growing. Both the American company ConocoPhillips and British BP are cutting their exposure to Russia’s oil and gas sector.
- RIA Novosti – The average size of a bribe in Russia nearly tripled between 2008 and 2009, despite a weakened global economic climate, a Russian Interior Ministry report published on Thursday said.
- CSM – The once-vaunted Russia science powerhouse is following the same downhill path of Soviet-era athletic prowess. Lack of funds and plummeting social recognition mean that few young people pursue science careers
- Russia Today – Two Russian military officers and a Georgian citizen have been given lengthy prison sentences after being found guilty of spying for Georgia
- Georgia MFA – On 24 March 2010, servicemen of the Russian occupation troops demolished school N3 reportedly as part of their plan to construct a dwelling house for occupants. 150 Georgian and Ossetian pupils were forced to continue their studies in another school. This fact represents a continuation of Russian occupants’ policy of ethnic cleansing and discrimination and indicates clearly that Russia neglects the universally recognized norms of international law, including one of the fundamental human rights, that is to receive education in the native language.
- Memorial – The Memorial Human Rights Center continues its work in the North Caucasus. We offer a new issue of our regular bulletin containing a brief description of the key events featured in our news section over the three autumn months of 2009 and a few examples of our analysis of the development of the situation in the region. This bulletin contains materials collected by the Memorial Human Rights Center staff working in the North Caucasus and published on the Memorial website as well as media and news agencies reports. (PDF)
- Itar Tass – The organiser of an attack on Nalchik in the autumn of 2005, Anzor Astemirov, has been killed in Nalchik, a source from Kabardino-Balkaria’s law enforcement agencies told Tass on Thursday.
- Kavkaz Center – In a statement published Thursday morning, the Command of Kabarda, Balkaria and Karachai Province of the Caucasus Emirate reported the Martyrdom of Amir Saifullah (Anzor Astemirov) Wednesday night, March 24, 2010. The statement of the command of United Province of Kabarda, Balkaria and Karachai states that Emir Saifullah has never stayed behind the Mujahideen and always fought infidels on the frontline. The statement has also indicates that Emir Saifullah has been killed during a battle in the Kabardino-Balkarian capital of Nalchik
- Xinhua – Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived here Wednesday for an official visit at the invitation of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. In a written statement upon his arrival, Xi said China and Belarus have achieved significant cooperation results in all fields including politics, economy, trade and humanities since forging diplomatic ties 18 years ago.
- SRI – Kazakhstan plans to increase uranium exports to Japan and boost its share on the Japanese uranium market to 40 percent from current 4 percent, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev told Japan’s Nikkei news agency on Wednesday.
Middle East
- AP – Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari walked out Thursday of an Arab League ministerial meeting held in Libya to protest against Moammar Gadhafi’s declared support for Saddam Hussein loyalists, delegates said
- Aswat al-Iraq – Iraqi special forces (SWAT) killed a senior leader of al-Qaeda group in western Mosul on Thursday, commander of the SWAT said.
- UNHCR – In a resolution (A/HRC/13/L.30) on follow-up to the report of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, adopted with twenty-nine in favour, six against, and eleven abstentions, as orally amended, the Council reiterates the call by the General Assembly upon the Government of Israel to conduct investigations that are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the Fact-Finding Mission (Bolivia, El Salvador*, Morocco*, Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference), Palestine*, Sudan* (on behalf of the Group of Arab States), Venezuela*: draft resolution)
- Israel MFA – The resolution adopted today in Geneva by the United Nations Human Rights Council has no connection to the safeguarding of human rights. As a democratic country, Israel will continue its internal inquiry procedures, out of its commitment to the rule of law and moral values.
- ISN – The subject of Hizbollah’s arms is again being approached, tangentially, in pan-factional Lebanese National Dialogue talks, through efforts to promote a joint national defense strategy
- NOW Lebanon – The National News Agency (NNA) reported on Thursday that an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) team installed an advanced wire-tapping device in front of the Fatima Gate at the northern entrance of the Kfar Kila village in South Lebanon.
- Al Manar – Hezbollah praised on Thursday Syrian President Bachar Assad’s wise vision as well as his firm and frank statements. In a statement it released to comment Assad’s interview with Al-Manar Television, Hezbollah said that the Syrian President emerged in this interview as a prominent Arab leader.
- IRIN – Poor planning and management, wasteful irrigation systems, intensive wheat and cotton farming and a rapidly growing population are straining water resources in Syria in a year which has seen unprecedented internal displacement as a result of drought in eastern and northeastern parts of the country.
- Asharq Al Awsat – Foreign nationals currently occupy leadership positions in Al Qaeda as well as financing, training, and recruitment in Saudi Arabia. This comes following the news that Saudi authorities have dismantled a 101 Al Qaeda elements operating in Saudi Arabia, the majority of which are foreign nationals. The Al Qaeda cell was planning on attacking the kingdom’s oil facilities.
- Naharnet – Internal Security Forces have seized 16 grams of cocaine from a Saudi Prince at Rafik Hariri International Airport, As Safir daily reported Thursday. The newspaper said that 51-year-old Y.B.A.A. was arrested on Tuesday before boarding an Air France flight to Paris.
- ynet – Turkey has taken delivery of six Heron drone aircraft from Israel and expects the remaining four to arrive by the end of April, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Thursday.
- The National – For the second day in a row, the former minister of state Mansoor bin Rajab appeared before the public prosecutor yesterday to answer questions about his alleged links to a money-laundering ring, which authorities say has ties to international drug-trafficking and illegal arm sales networks. On Tuesday, Mr bin Rajab was called into the attorney general’s office for questioning, a day after Bahrain’s king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, issued a decree removing him from office.
Iran
- Press TV – Commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Air Force (IRIAF) hails the expansion of the defensive military capabilities of the country’s armed forces. Speaking Thursday while touring some of the operational regions of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war Pilot Brigadier General Hassan Shahsafi emphasized the importance of conveying the realities of the imposed war to the post-war generation of Iran.
- IHS – Through the use of commercial satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, IHS Jane’s has revealed that a new launch pad is being constructed at Iran’s Semnan space centre that could ultimately launch Tehran’s next-generation Simorgh rocket.
- Michael Ledeen – Monday night in the city of Karaj, a car blew up. It was carrying several members of the Revolutionary Guards’ “foreign legion,” non-Iranian Arabs being trained for operations against Americans and our friends and allies in the region. The explosion was enormous. “They used too much explosives,” an Iranian friend commented. Neither he nor I knows who carried out the attack, but it is only one of many. I haven’t seen a report about it in the press, but then there is no press these days in Iran; the papers — those that hadn’t already been shut down by the censors — have been silenced during the Norooz holiday.
- Fars – China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Li Baodong underlined his country’s support for continued talks to reach a negotiated solution to Iran-West nuclear standoff.
- IRIB – Carun Four Dam, largest arch dam in Iran, was commissioned by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday. The dam would offer an additional 1 megawatt of electricity to the national grid
A KC-10 Extender from the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron refuels F-16 Fighting Falcons over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom air refueling operations in February 2010. The 908th EARS is part of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing which supports operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa
South Asia
- AFPS – Afghan and international security forces captured several suspected militants in various recent operations in Afghanistan, military officials reported.
- McClatchy – If the U.S. Marines at Combat Outpost Turbett have any problems with their Afghan colleagues, they’re with the Afghan soldiers who followed them into battle against Taliban fighters, not with the elite police officers who’ve stepped in to help fill the security vacuum
- UK MoD – The Head of the Army met a delegation of senior religious leaders from Helmand province last week to discuss the importance of religion and culture in military operations in Afghanistan. In the first meeting of its kind in the UK.
- AP – Curbing the Taliban’s multimillion dollar opium poppy business was a major goal of a military operation to seize this former insurgent stronghold. With the town in NATO hands, the Marines face a conundrum: If they destroy the crops and curb the trade, they lose the support of the population — a problem for which they have no easy solution
- Geo – Pakistani military air strikes killed dozens suspected militants in an area near the Afghan border Thursday, including dozens at a seminary where Taliban commanders were believed to be meeting, officials said. The jet fire rained in two spells during the day in the Mamuzai area of Orakzai, a tribal region where many Taliban leaders are believed to have fled to avoid an army ground offensive further south
- MEMRI – Taliban militants blew up a girls’ primary school in the Risalpur town of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and slaughtered a tribesman in the tribal district of Orakzai Agency, according to an Urdu-language daily.
- AKI – A close aide of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and former governor of Afghanistan’s province Oruzgan, Abdul Hai Salik, has been arrested in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, Pakistan’s Aaj News reported on Thursday.
- Press TV – Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik says he can not confirm the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud who has outlived numerous claims of his assassination
- Times of India – A jawan of the elite CoBRA battalion was injured in a fierce gunbattle with Maoists at Hatipota village in West Midnapore district, while armed encounters took place at Dharampur, Silda and Kalsibhanga
- Daily Star (Bangladesh) – Panicked by the government move to hold trial of war criminals, top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders with alleged links to 1971 war crimes are desperately searching ways to evade prosecution and protect their political future.
Far East & Pacific
- Asia Times – The Chinese government is probably unhappy about a new report by a Virginia-based, non-partisan think-tank called Project 2049 that reveals significant and previously little known details about Base 22 in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province, China’s primary storage facility for nuclear weapons. Publicity about this new report – “China’s Nuclear Warhead Storage and Handling System” – first appeared in Defense News in early March.
- Caijing – China Railway Group Limited (China Railway, 601390.SH) announced Thursday that the company has earned an Indonesia coal transportation contract worth 4.799 billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to 13.96 percent of the company’s operating income in 2008. China Railway will be responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the South Sumatra project run by Indonesia’s Bhakta Hill Pan Pacific Railway Corporation.
- The Australian – Australia’s biggest gas export deal ($60 billion) was announced on Wednesday between Britain’s BG Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp, involving the sale of 3.6 million tonnes of liquid natural gas each year for the next 20 years. While this is the largest such deal involving LNG, there are four major projects currently proposed for Queensland, and all are expected to involve major exports of LNG. But one possible implication for domestic consumers is that LNG exporters can get a higher price for their product overseas than in Australia.
- news.com.au – Israel expects Australia will expel one of its diplomat over the use of fake Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas chief. Israeli government sources told The Australian that of the countries whose passports were stolen, Australia was the most likely to follow Britain’s lead.
- Straits Times – Authorities in Thailand stepped up security on Thursday after a series of small bomb blasts raised tensions in the capital as anti-government protests continued for a twelfth day. The ‘Red Shirt’ protest movement, which wants Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve Parliament and call new elections, staged its latest attention-getting action, having hundreds of supporters shave their heads.
- Japan Times – A series of recent incidents, including an alleged hit-and-run by a U.S. sailor, has prompted top military brass in Okinawa to discuss measures to prevent misconduct by their personnel. Okinawa Area Coordinator Lt. Gen. Terry Robling has directed the army, navy, air force and marine corps to hold an educational review and a comprehensive internal examination of policies and procedures that govern conduct and discipline on and off duty, according to the U.S. military in Okinawa.
- Scott Snyder – South Korea’s Emerging Global Security Role
- Chosun Ilbo – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and receives kidney dialysis once every two weeks, the head of a think tank affiliated with the National Intelligence Service claimed Wednesday.
Europe
- France24 – The euro slumped to a 10-month low as Euro zone members failed to agree on the best way to help debt-ridden Greece out of crisis. Members are at odds whether the IMF should be involved, ahead of a key summit in Brussels this week
- EurActiv – Germany will urge European Union leaders to agree that International Monetary Fund (IMF) and bilateral European aid could be used as a “last resort” for Greece if it reached the brink of insolvency, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on 25 March
- euronews – Portugal is on the brink of approving an austerity plan aimed at reducing its overweight budget deficit. Investors have been spooked by Portugal’s deficit and by yesterday’s decision by the credit agency Fitch to downgrade Portugal’s rating, making it more expensive to borrow.
- UPI – There is no intention to alter the scheduled 2011 launch of construction for the Nabucco natural gas pipeline for Europe, directors said Thursday in Vienna.
- Daily Mail – Prince Charles today became the most senior royal to visit British troops on the frontline as he made a secret trip to Afghanistan.The heir-to-the-throne’s tour was shrouded in secrecy and details were only released after he had left Afghan airspace. It is the first time he has been to the country.
- Defense News – The French Navy is sending 10 warships and 30 aircraft as part of France’s contribution to the forthcoming NATO exercise Brilliant Mariner, intended to certify the maritime component in the NATO Response Force (NRF), Adm. Jean-Louis Kérignard said March 25
- Baltic Times – Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has officially nominated a new head for the country’s national intelligence service. Gediminas Grina, a military intelligence officer, has gained the approval of the president but will still have to survive a parliamentary vote before he can begin his duties. He is expected to gain the support of parliament as well. The former head of the VSD, Povilas Malakauskas, stepped down on 14 December 2009 amid the CIA prisons scandal.
Africa
- BBC – Somali security agents have demolished some 500 houses near the airport in the capital, Mogadishu, amid concerns they could be used as cover for an attack
- Garowe – The besieged Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia is planning to launch full scale its much-awaited offensive against the powerful insurgence in the coming week, sources told Radio Garowe
- Shabelle – The Islamist fighters of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have destroyed the grave of another famous Somali cleric Mo’alin Mohamed better known as (Biyo Mallow) in in Mogadishu, official said on Thursday
- Sudan Tribune – Chadian military officers, who are part of the joint Sudan-Chad command formed recently to monitor the border, arrived to the capital of West Darfur state, El Geneina, where they are based, the Sudanese army announced today.
- Al Arabiya – Algeria launched the largest population evacuation campaign since its independence as the government began to move thousands of people living in the capital’s slum areas to new apartments. Repeated riots in several shanty towns across the country and security fears that slum areas could transform into breeding grounds for terrorist cells prompted an official decision to transfer…
- New Vision – Security agencies yesterday dismissed reports that Hashi Hussein Farah, a terror suspect who disappeared from police custody in the Kenyan border town of Busia, is in Uganda, reports Steven Candia. Farah, who holds an Australian passport, is alleged to have links with the al Shabaab in Somalia and al-Qaeda. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye yesterday said security intelligence indicates that the man is not in Uganda.
- State Dept – U.S. Policy in sub-Saharan Africa
High Speed Vessel Swift arrives at Souda Bay for a routine port visit. Swift is one of the primary platforms for Africa Partnership Station, an international initiative to improve maritime safety and security in west and central Africa (photo by Paul Farley)
The Global War
- RFERL – An new audio message purportedly of the voice of Osama bin Laden has been released, threatening that Al-Qaeda will kill Americans if Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged planner of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, is executed.
- Air Force – March 23 airpower summary; Sorties flown to support ISAF and Afghan security forces: 83, Sorties flown to support Operation Iraqi Freedom: 20
- Spiegel – Did monks in the Middle Ages know more about medicine than we thought? A German medical historian is combing medieval manuscripts looking for recipes that could be helpful today. Pharmaceutical companies have taken a keen interest in his research
Sights & Sounds
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11 March, 2010 (01:04) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 11 March 2010.
United States & the Americas
- Press TV – US lawmakers are stepping up efforts to tighten sanctions on Iran after a report revealed that Washington had awarded 107 billion dollars in payments to American and international companies doing business with the country. “We need to send a strong, clear signal to Iran that until it halts its nuclear ambitions, the dangerous state will be denied the benefits of access to the global economy,” Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Monday.
- Al Arabiya – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew into Riyadh on Wednesday for talks expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear program and Washington’s push for tough sanctions against Tehran.
- FBI – David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Michael L. Levy, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, together with Janice K. Fedarcyk, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI in Philadelphia, announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Colleen R. LaRose, aka “Fatima LaRose,” aka “JihadJane,” with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official, and attempted identity theft.
- Irish Times – An American woman dubbed “Jihad Jane” at the centre of an alleged plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist “sponsored” a number of Muslims in Ireland on extremist websites before travelling here to meet them. Gardaí believe Colleen Renee LaRose, who has been under arrest in connection with the alleged murder plot in the US since last October, first befriended a number of foreign nationals living in Ireland on websites.
- canada.com – One minister, not three, should oversee the billions of dollars worth of future equipment purchases for the Canadian Forces, a new report to the Harper government recommends. The study on ways to improve defence procurement describes an inefficient and secretive system that will ultimately be responsible for overseeing up to $240 billion worth of future equipment purchases.
- COHA – China Eyes Venezuelan and Brazilian Oil
- Germany MFA – Germany and Argentina have agreed to intensify their cooperation. Following political talks in Buenos Aires, Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle commented that Germany’s relations with Argentina were “in the strategic national interest”. The aim was not only to open up new opportunities for German business but also to expand scientific exchanges.
- Columbia Reports – The Colombian army announced Wednesday that it will fire three high-ranking officials caught on tape celebrating at the wedding of a suspected drug trafficker more than five years ago.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Hindustan Times – Defence and nuclear energy cooperation are likely to dominate the talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Putin will be here on a two-day visit. The two sides are likely to conclude the agreement on aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.
- RFERL – Ten men captured by Russian security forces in a raid that killed a militant leader last week have been arrested as suspects in a deadly November train bombing, Russian news agencies reported.
- RIA Novosti – As a consequence of Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov’s military reform, the Russian officer corps is arguably enduring the most fundamental changes and challenges that it has faced in the past two centuries. Not only has it been subject to downsizing, the system of military education reformed, fitness tests introduced, and the burden of training duties increased, but other innovations demonstrate the serious drive by the defense ministry to foster a new breed of officer.
- SRI – U.S. General David Petraeus arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday, a day after the United States said it would build an anti-terrorism training center for the former Soviet republic in Central Asia.
- Xinhua – Three factions in Ukraine’s Parliament, the Regions Party, the Communist Party and the Lytvyn’ s blok, decided to create a new ruling coalition along with some individual lawmakers, said a leader of the Regions Party on Wednesday
- Caucasian Knot – The Russian delegation labelled as politicized the report of Walter Kelin, Special Representative of Secretary General of the United Nations on Internally Displaced Persons’ Rights, which summed up his visit to South Ossetia. The report was presented on March 8 at the 13th Session of the United Nations on Human Rights (HRS) held in Switzerland. In the opinion of Mikhail Lebedev, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the UN Branch and other international organizations in Geneva, the report is lopsided, biased and contains factual mistakes
- Kavkaz Center – Kavkaz Center’s source reported that the Mujahideen attacked a military convoy consisted of Russian invaders from the FSB gang and minions in the area of settlements of Makhkety and Selmentauzen of Vedeno District of Nokhchicho (Chechnya) Province of the Caucasus Emirate on Tuesday afternoon. The convoy fist was struck by IED and fired by rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers. Details of battle are not available
- RIA Novosti – Tajikistan’s top court on Wednesday sentenced 56 followers of Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), a radical Muslim group, for extremist activities in the Central Asian state.
- EurasiaNet – As Mongolia struggles to overcome a devastatingly harsh winter, international development organizations, including United Nations agencies and the World Bank, are urging Ulaanbaatar to take a hard look at reforming the country’s nomadic agricultural practices
Middle East
- Washington Post – After initially playing down the scope of the violence during Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Iraq, the U.S. military has concluded in an internal assessment that at least 37 people were killed in 136 attacks.
- IDF – In his speech, Lt. Gen Gabi Ashkenazi emphasized that “Iran was the main threat to world peace, and gradually attempting to harvest regional instability through its proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Therefore the international community must stop the Iranian nuclear program for its own sake.
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- NOW Lebanon – The Lebanese army issued a statement on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace at 12:15 p.m. over the southern village of Kfar Fila, after which they proceeded to fly over the South before exiting the country at 1:50 p.m. over the southern village of Rmeish.
- CSM – The most powerful politicians in Lebanon resumed discussions on national defense, with questions of how to rein in Shiite political party Hezbollah’s powerful military wing on the table.
- Arab News – Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, a prominent voice of the Islamic world and head of Al-Azhar, the highest religious authority in Egypt, died here on Wednesday at the age of 81 following a heart attack. Sheikh Tantawi had arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday to participate in the award-giving ceremony of the King Faisal International Prize
- Murad Batal Al-shishani, Jamestown – An Assessment of the Anatomy of al-Qaeda in Yemen: Ideological and Social Factors
Iran
- Iran MFA – Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mihman-Parast said on Wednesday that there are numerous evidence and documents which show that terrorist ringleader Abdulmalek Rigi was supported by the US and Britain. Referring to the crimes committed by Rigi in the country, he said they never assumed that the Iranian intelligence service and security apparatus would easily arrest Rigi one day. Upon his arrest, Rigi provided us with classified and important information, he said.
- Fars – Iran’s first home-made destroyer, ‘Jamaran’, successfully test-fired a powerful and intelligent missile named ‘Nour’ (light), commander of the Iranian Navy announced on Wednesday.
- Payvand – Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has used a visit to Afghanistan to lambast Kabul’s Western allies, particularly the United States, saying Washington — not Tehran — was playing a “double game” in the country. Ahmadinejad accused the United States of fighting terrorists that it helped to create.
- Persia House – In the past several weeks, in many official occasions in which high-ranking officials were present, posters of the Iranian flag were shown with illegal colors! At some official meetings, the green part of the flag was blue! Of course, officials from the Presidential Office claimed it was due to the reflection of the light. They even stated that they have the banner to prove it. So, where did the black color covering the green part of the flag come from? Is it again the reflection of the light that changed the green to black?
Afghan national police and U.S. Army Soldiers with 2nd Platoon, Company D, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, withdraw from an area near Sundray village in Afghanistan's Kunar province, using smoke for cover. Officials searched the area following a Feb. 18, attack against an International Security Assistance Force convoy using small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. ISAF destroyed about five fighting positions and a weapons cache in the using artillery, mortar fire and air-to-ground rockets (photo by Staff Sgt. Gary Witte)
South Asia
- UK FCO – The war in Afghanistan: How to end it; Speech by Rt Hon David Miliband MP Foreign Secretary on Afghanistan delivered as part of the eminent Compton lecture series
- AFPS – Afghan and international forces captured numerous suspected insurgents in four Afghanistan provinces during combined operations over the last two days, military officials reported. Bagram-based Special Forces and international forces captured two suspects connected to insurgents in Helmand’s Nawzad district. In a separate operation in the Garmsir district, a combined force captured several insurgents.
- World Vision – World Vision today is mourning the brutal and senseless deaths of six members of its staff in the Mansehra District of Pakistan after an unprovoked attack by gunmen. The international humanitarian organisation confirms reports that gunmen entered its compound, threw grenades, opened fire on staff inside the office, and left the compound after exploding a homemade bomb. The compound is located 65 kilometres north of Mansehra town.
- Press TV – Two US drone attacks on Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region have killed at least 14 people and injured a number of others. Eight people were killed when a drone fired five missiles at a vehicle in Mizar Madakhel village, Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed on Wednesday.
- The Hindu – Interview with Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani
- The News – Twenty-nine brigadiers, including Zahid Latif Mirza — currently posted at Tampa-based US Central Command — and President’s Military Secretary Brig Mian M Hilal Hussain, were promoted to the rank of 2-star generals in the Pakistan Army on Wednesday.
- RSIS – Darul Uloom Deoband:Stemming the Tide of Radical Islam in India
- Colombo Page – China, through its Export-Import (Exim) Bank has provided Sri Lanka with a Concessional Loan of US$ 190 million to construct the country’s second airport in Mattala and another US$ 100 million to expand the capacity of the Sri Lankan Railway, Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
- Colombo Page – The Government of Sri Lanka and Export-Import Bank of India today signed a US$ 67.4 million Line of Credit Agreement to upgrade the Southern coastal railway line from Colombo to Matara
- ISN – Now that a tenuous peace has returned to Bangladesh’s tribal Chittagong Hill Tracts region following clashes between tribes and settlers in violence that some say was encouraged by the military, all eyes are now on how Dhaka will respond, Animesh Roul reports for ISN Security Watch.
Far East & Pacific
- Bhaskar Roy – China’s Military Budget 2010-The Hidden Contents
- SWP – Military Trends in China; Modernising and Internationalising the People’s Liberation Army
- China MFA – China is firmly opposed to the US arms sales to Taiwan. This position is unequivocal and consistent. We urge the US side to abide by the principles enshrined in the three joint communiqués and the China-US Joint Statement, take China’s position seriously and respect China’s core interests and major concerns. The US need to properly handle sensitive issues including arms sales to Taiwan and stop the promotion of arms sales to Taiwan so as to maintain the healthy and stable development of China-US relations
- Bloomberg – China’s exports rose more than forecast in February and property prices jumped the most in almost two years, adding pressure on policy makers to pare stimulus measures adopted during the global recession. Shipments abroad gained 46 percent in February from a year before after a 21 percent advance in January, the customs bureau reported on its Web site.
- The Australian – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has confirmed that Jemaah Islamiah leader Dulmatin was one of three men killed in a raid in Jakarta. Dulmatin was a key player in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
- Japan Times – Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Wednesday he does not think the United States will rearm its attack subs with nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles. There are deep exchanges between the Japanese and U.S. governments. . . . But I don’t think that Tomahawks will be reloaded,” Okada told a Diet committee, a day after a Foreign Ministry panel acknowledged the existence of a “tacit agreement” under which Japan effectively allowed U.S. nuclear-armed ships to enter the nation’s ports without prior consultation, in violation of official policy.
Europe
- Russia Today – The US may advance its partnership with Russia by using one of its radars as part of its anti-ballistic shield in Europe, says James Stravridis, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe
- Irish Times – GARDAÍ have arrested seven people as part of an international investigation into an alleged plot to kill a Swedish artist who produced a series of sketches depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.
- Reuters – Angry public and private sector unions are expected to bring Greece to a standstill on Thursday in a second nationwide strike in as many weeks against tough government austerity plans. The 24-hour walk-out will ground flights and shut schools, hospitals and tourist sites such as the Acropolis but it is unlikely to halt Prime Minister George Papandreou’s plans to slash spending and hike taxes to rein in a yawning deficit and restore confidence in the ailing Greek economy.
- euobserver – EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday (10 March) sought to draw a line under her stormy first 100 days in office by giving a wide-ranging speech to MEPs outlining her vision for future European foreign policy.
Africa
- Garowe – A Hizbul Islam official called Bare Ali Bare was on Tuesday gunned down by unknown assailants in Mogadishu ’s Bakara Market, a stronghold for Somali rebel fighters.
- Asharq Al Awsat – The Chairman of the Libyan National Oil Company [NOC] informed Asharq Al-Awsat that Tripoli is seeking to give precedence to Russia and China – at the expense of US oil companies – with regards to the Libyan oil industry because of its dissatisfaction of the Obama administrations support for Switzerland in its current crisis with Libya. At the same time, the Libyan Charges d’Affaires to the UK, Omar R Jelban, revealed that Switzerland has issued a blacklist of 188 Libyans banned from traveling to the country, and that the names of the three Libyan officials charged with negotiating an end to this diplomatic crisis were included on this list. Jelban said that this indicates that Switzerland is not interested in resolving the crisis with Tripoli.
- UPI – East Africa is emerging as the next oil boom following a big strike in Uganda’s Lake Albert Basin. Other oil and natural gas reserves have been found in Tanzania and Mozambique and exploration is under way in Ethiopia and even war-torn Somalia.
- Asia Times – China’s US$9 billion barter deal to develop infrastructure in return for concessions on copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo was seen as a win- win for Chinese companies and the African nation. But the project has fallen foul to the impoverished but resource-rich nation’s Western creditors, setting China on a roller-coaster ride that could yet derail the “deal of the century”.
- BBC – Former rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who now serve in the army are running mafia-style extortion rackets in the mines, campaigners say. Ex-rebels of the CNDP group are said to have gained far greater control of the mines than they did as insurgents.
- ISNA – Iran’s parliament Speaker Ali Larijani met and conferred his Senegalese counterpart on developing interrelations. Meeting Senegal’s National Assembly President Mamadou Seck, Larijani expressed satisfaction on expanding procedure of fraternal interrelations in different fields and added, Iran’s strategy has always been based on cooperation with African countries especially Senegal.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Defense Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Rahim Wardak walk out to board a UH-60 Blackhawk at the airport in Kabul, March 10, 2010. (photo by Cherie Cullen)
The Global War
- Dr Idean Salehyan, SSI – Transnational Insurgencies and the Escalation of Regional Conflict: Lessons for Iraq and Afghanistan
- Andrew Krepinevich, CSBA – This state of affairs is almost certainly ending, with significant consequences for US security. With the spread of advanced military technologies and their exploitation by other militaries, especially China’s People’s Liberation Army and to a far lesser extent Iran’s military and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the US military’s ability to preserve military access to two key areas of vital interest, the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf, is being increasingly challenged.
- US Navy – Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11 held a change of command ceremony on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) March 6. Rear Adm. Robert P. Girrier relieved Rear Adm. John W. Miller as commander, CSG 11.
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18 November, 2009 (00:49) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 18 November 2009.
United States & the Americas
- NY Times – President Obama made a big effort Tuesday at presenting his first visit to China as a step forward in America’s evolving relationship with its fastest rising competitor. But what emerged after six hours of meetings, two dinners, and a stilted 30-minute presentation to the press in which Chinese President Hu Jintao would not allow questions, was a picture of a China more willing to say no to the United States.
- US Senate Cmte on Foreign Relations – Examining US Counterterrorism Priorities and Strategy Across Africa’s Sahel Region
- National Post – Counterterrorism officials are investigating a group of youths who allegedly left Canada for East Africa two weeks ago, amid concerns they may have gone to join the Somali militant group Al-Shabab.
- Press Trust – Aiming to give a major push to their ties, India and Canada today signed an energy pact and decided to ink a civil nuclear agreement and undertake a feasibility study for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
- El Universal – China’s third-biggest steelmaker Wuhan Iron & Steel Group (Wisco) signed a long-term iron ore contract with Venezuela’s state-run company Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), announced on Tuesday the official Chinese newspaper China Daily.
- Xinhua – China and Brazil vowed to advance military relations to a new high as senior officials from both countries met here Tuesday.
- MercoPress – The Brazilian Federal Police announced that beginning December an unmanned “spy” aircraft will over-fly the shanty towns of Rio do Janeiro at a height of 7.000 metres, well out of range from the drug gangs and trades that last week shot down a police helicopter killing three men on board.
- Prensa Latina – Bolivia, China to Sign Satellite Agreement; An interministerial commission will travel to China next November 23 to discuss technical issues related to the first telecommunication satellite”s construction in that South American country, which will named Túpac Katari.
- COHA – A Grey Goldmine: Recent Developments in Lithium Extraction in Bolivia and Alternative Energy Projects
- Columbia Reports – The commander of a FARC column in the south of Colombia is held responsible for the killings of twelve people in the past three weeks. Authorities say the murders are to avenge the death of the commander’s boyfriend. The killings all occured in the south of the central-west Tolima department that has seen intense fighting for years and is considered a FARC stronghold because of its mountainous south.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- RIA Novosti – Russia is close to finishing the construction of Iran’s first nuclear power plant and is currently making final adjustments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Tuesday.
- Xinhua – Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi announced Tuesday it would supply the newest Su-35S fighters to the Russian Defense Ministry from next year.
- Nosint – Russia’s plan to supply Lebanon with 10 MiG-29 fighter jets will enter its final phase soon, the Beirut-based Al-Markazia news agency reported
- RFERL – An antifascist campaigner has been shot dead in Moscow, investigators said, in what a fellow activist said may have been revenge for the arrests of ultranationalists earlier this month.
- UPI - Construction of the first drilling rig for the Shtokman gas and condensate field in the Barents Sea is slated for the fourth quarter of 2010, Gazprom said.
- The National – Much, however, remains rotten in the North Caucasus, and in what some see as a tacit admission of the severe shortcomings Mr Putin’s strategy in the region, his successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, has decried the rampant violence and corruption there and pledged a renewed effort to bring tranquillity to the conflict-scarred region. In his annual state-of-the-nation speech last week, Mr Medvedev called the situation in the North Caucasus – home to other restive, primarily Muslim, republics such as Dagestan and Ingushetia – the “most serious domestic political problem” facing Russia today.
- EurasiaNet – Amid a diplomatic chill, Azerbaijan and Turkey opened a new round of talks November 16 on an energy export price. Recent agreements on gas supplies to Bulgaria, Iran and Russia suggest that Baku is exploring alternative export routes as a means to pressure Ankara into paying significantly more for Azerbaijani natural gas.
- SRI – Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources approved Canada-based Uranium One’s acquisition of a 50-percent interest in the Karatau uranium venture from Russia’s Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ).
- Russia Today – Tajikistan and Russia: partnership for stability in Central Asia; Russia’s Central Asian neighbor shares many of Moscow’s same concerns, and this has helped to forge a dynamic partnership between the two countries.
Middle East
- Al Sumaria – Six people were killed and eight others were wounded in a car bomb explosion in Kirkuk. The explosion caused major damages to stores and buildings nearby while police forces cordoned off the region.
- ABC – Iraq’s Kurds threatened Tuesday to boycott national elections, days after the country’s Sunni vice president threatened to veto the newly passed election law needed to hold the January vote.
- Voices of Iraq – An Iraqi judge on Tuesday escaped an attempt on his life when gunmen attacked his car near Mosul, according to a local police chief.
- Haaretz – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that Iran’s nuclear program posed a threat not just to Israel, but to the entire world, during a visit to a submarine that underscored Israel’s military might. “The threat that Iran poses is very grave for the state of Israel, for peace in the Middle East and the whole world,” Netanyahu said aboard a missile ship. “Without any doubt, we are the first target, but not the last.”
- Jerusalem Post – In the face of the growing ballistic missile threat against Israel, the Defense Ministry plans to significantly increase production of Arrow missile interceptors, capable of intercepting incoming Iranian and Syrian Shihab and Scud missiles, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday.
- Daily Star – Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Hizbullah was attempting to implement its own agenda, adding that he refused to visit Syria in the current period. “Israel objects to all issues in Lebanon as well as elsewhere, but Hizbullah is known to be an armed party with aims and objectives which the party is attempting to implement.”
- NOW Lebanon – A Hezbollah source denied on Tuesday media reports that Hezbollah elected new members to its Shura Council. The source also said that the party is still preparing to hold the council’s elections, but did not disclose any further information.
- MEMRI – Alarabiya.net reports, citing Iranian sources, on the tension prevailing recently between Tehran and Hizbullah, due to Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s criticism of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s shaky relations with Arab countries.
- ynet – The United Nations atomic watchdog said on Tuesday it was inspecting a nuclear research reactor in Damascus because it had doubts about Syria’s explanation as to how traces of uranium got there.
- Al Arabiya – Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz confirmed late Monday that all armed infiltrators have been driven of the Saudi territory by the country’s armed forces. He said that all residents who have been evacuated from their villages due to fighting are being taken care of with the government.
- Asharq Al Awsat – A Saudi military source confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Huthi infiltrators are following a specific approach in their continuing attacks on the Saudi forces that have been deployed in the border region. The source revealed that the Huthi rebels lay low for the majority of the day before launching surprise attacks on [Saudi] military sites at night.
- Guardian – Turkey on Tuesday transferred five inmates to the prison island holding Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan so he can end his isolation. The Council of Europe had demanded that Turkey end Ocalan’s solitude, saying his mental state was deteriorating after years as the sole inmate of Imrali island, off Istanbul.
- Hurriyet – Turkey and Spain, two countries that suffer from terrorism, discussed ways to jointly fight against this fatal threat. According to Turkish diplomats, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu briefed his counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos, about his government’s ongoing Kurdish move and its plans to end the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, terrorism.
- TIME – Archaeologists in Egypt Dig up a Persian Puzzle; Twin Italian archaeologists say they have discovered the remains of an army once thought to have been mythical, deep in the sands of the Sahara
Iran
- RFERL – A senior Iranian military official has accused Saudi Arabia of killing Shi’ite Muslims in Yemen and denounced it as the onset of “Wahhabi state terrorism,” the official IRNA news agency reported.
- ISNA – Russians say technical problems have caused the delay in delivery of S300 defense systems to Iran, said Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi
- Xinhua – Iran’s oil minister said Tuesday that his country will add 14 million liters of gasoline to its daily output, the official IRNA news agency reported. Masoud Mirkazemi said the production of gasoline in Iran’s three petrochemical plants would decrease the amount of imported gasoline by 14 million liters per day, the report said.
- Fars – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is slated to leave Tehran for Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, Tuesday night.
- Mehr - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said the “door is open” for India to rejoin the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline but indicated that Iran could not wait indefinitely and the structure of the project could change in the future
- Uskowi on Iran – Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence PSA video
- Washington Post – Iran’s judiciary is investigating the death of a conscript doctor who served in a now-closed detention facility, where the suspicious deaths of three anti-government protesters are currently under a parliamentary probe, the Khabar newspaper reported Tuesday.
- Reporters Without Borders – Journalists are continuing to be arrested five months after the start of the demonstrations against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed reelection. Three more have been arrested in the past couple of weeks while those who defend the 34 detained journalists and bloggers are being subjected to increased intimidation
- Al Jazeera – The trial of a French lecturer who was arrested after Iran’s disputed presidential election in June has resumed after reports that she could be set free at the hearing. Reiss, who is bail and staying at the French embassy in Iran, is accused of taking part in a Western plot to destabilise the Iranian government
Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, walk with local elders during a patrol of the village of Kace Satar, Farah Province, Afghanistan, Nov. 11. (photo by Cpl. Zachary Nola)
South Asia
- Asia Times – Taliban counter-moves against United States coalition efforts to forge a supply route from Central Asia to northern Afghanistan have ended the relative calm in that part of Afghanistan and could drag Central Asian states into the conflict. As more foreign fighters from groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan join the ranks of the emerging “northern Taliban”, the issue is rapidly climbing up the coalition’s agenda.
- CSM – The Taliban had set a trap for the tiny company of Afghan soldiers here, its handful of US mentors and the American helicopters that they expected would rush in to help. Firing mortars to lure the Americans and Afghans out of their mud-straw base, the motorcycle-borne Taliban headed toward a nearby ravine. Dozens of insurgents with light machine guns, a recoilless rifle and four trucks bearing three anti-aircraft guns and a heavy machine gun were set up in a classic ambush from high ground
- Xinhua – Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government in the latest wave of violence have beheaded two civilians in the western Farah province, a local newspaper reported Tuesday. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the beheading, saying they were punished for spying for foreign troops
- AFPS – Afghan and international forces worked together to kill or detain numerous enemy fighters and terrorism suspects in operations over the last two days, military officials reported. A combined Afghan and international security force killed several enemy militants, including a sought-after Taliban district commander, and detained several suspected militants in Afghanistan’s Wardak province early today.
- Daily Mail – British troops fighting in Afghanistan should buy off the Taliban with ‘bags of gold’, according to new Army guidelines. Cash can be ‘a substitute for force’, the new counter-insurgency field manual states.
- Independent – A Territorial Army soldier was shot dead two weeks after arriving in Afghanistan and telling friends that troops were “still waiting” for promised new body armour and helmets.
- Dawn – The head of the Taliban in Swat valley, Maulana Fazlullah, has said that he has escaped the army and is now in Afghanistan. Maulana Fazlullah told BBC Urdu that he had reached Afghanistan safely and will soon launch full-fledged punitive raids against the army in Swat.
- Daily Times – Security forces killed four terrorists in operations in Swat, as the ISPR on Monday said Operation Rah-e-Nijat was progressing well in South Waziristan. An ISPR statement said security forces were consolidating their positions on each of the three main axes in the agency.
- Geo – Pakistan Army has taken full control of Sararogha amid ongoing operation in Southern Waziristan killing a large number of Uzbek militants there Tuesday
- The News – Three persons were killed and over 30 others sustained injuries in yet another suicide car bombing, targeting Badaber police station near the city on the Kohat Road.
- Dawn – Taliban militants blew up a girls’ school in Khyber district on Tuesday, the third such attack in the region so far this month, officials said. An intelligence official in the area said Taliban attacked the government-run school overnight when no one was at the property.
- The News – Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Monday that in the wake of the ongoing war on terror, the defence spending was bound to be revised upward as compared with the envisaged budgetary allocation.
- UPI – Indian officials said they don’t plan to launch a satellite for Iran, a sensitive issue for Western countries already concerned about Iran’s missile program.
- The Hindu – Jammu and Kashmir secessionist leaders have held a second round of secret dialogue with Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, in an effort to push forward the stalled peace process in the State, highly-placed government sources told The Hindu.
- BBC – It is six months since the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka but Tamil Tiger rebels and their supporters are yet to recover from the dramatic military defeat by security forces earlier this year. The recent attempts by remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) abroad to revive the movement have not succeeded so far.
Far East & Pacific
- Reuters – Japan and the United States will hold the first meeting of a working group to tackle a row over a U.S. military base on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said, days after a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to revitalize ties. The row broke out after Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama promised ahead of his August election win to have the Futenma Marine base moved off the southern island of Okinawa, contradicting an agreement Washington reached with a previous government.
- Japan Times – Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada admitted it would be difficult to “completely scrap” the 2006 Japan-U.S. accord on reorganizing the American forces in Japan that includes the planned relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa. He made the remarks after meeting strong resistance from local governments over his call to consider merging the Futenma flight operations, now in Ginowan, with the nearby U.S. Kadena air base instead of moving the base farther north to Nago, as per the bilateral accord.
- Yonhap – North Korea said it sent a military delegation to China on Tuesday, as U.S. President Barack Obama agreed with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing to step up cooperation in persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
- The Australian – The 56 asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking are due to end their three-week standoff with the Australian government this morning in a move that will help Kevin Rudd address tensions with Indonesia over the impasse
- Graeme Dobell – Here’s a question for Australia’s defence community. Hands up anyone who thinks Defence can deliver on the promise it made in the White Paper to find $20 billion in cost savings over 10 years.
- Bangkok Post – Six suspected insurgents were killed and two policemen wounded in an exchange of fire in Pattani’s Khok Pho district on Tuesday. The 30-minute clash took place after members of Santisuk Task Force, a combined military, police and civilian unit, surrounded three houses at Phru Chut village in tambon Khuan Nori where a number of suspected insurgents were reported to have assembled.
Europe
- BNET – It is being reported that the Royal Air Force (RAF) is creating a package of cuts and restructuring for the next defense budget in England. The idea is that if the service itself proposes these ahead of the preparation of the budget by the Ministry’s leadership they will get to pick and choose where they occur rather then having them dictated. It is assumed that no matter if their is a new Conservative or Labor government the cost of continuing operations in Afghanistan will eat into the support of existing forces as well as future investments.
- UK FCO – Building on the PM’s foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, David Miliband delivered a speech at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on our strategy in Afghanistan.
- RIA Novosti – NATO has been actively discussing the possibility of establishing a joint European army for a long time. The latest discussion was triggered after The Times published an interview with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on November 15, 2009.
- Spiegel – An explosive trial about to start in Munich involves a spy accused of betraying state secrets to his gay lover. It promises to expose the shadowy world of Germany’s foreign intelligence and may end up damaging the service
- The Local – Two leading Rwandan Hutu rebels were arrested in Germany on Tuesday on suspicion of crimes against humanity and recent war crimes in Congo, prosecutors in Karlsruhe said.
- AKI – Violent threats against politicians and journalists from a far-left group has placed the Italian government on high alert. The threats were made in a letter sent by the Nucleus for Territorial Action (NAT) to media outlets this week. “There are worrying signals,” said interior minister, Roberto Maroni, in the northern city of Milan on Tuesday. Maroni said he could not rule out a possible link between the organisation and radical Islamists
- BBC – A gang suspected of bringing more than 2,000 illegal immigrants into Europe has been targeted by police in a series of raids across Europe
- Kremlin – Dmitry Medvedev will visit Stockholm to take part in the Russia-EU summit on November 17-18, 2009
Africa
- VOA – The spokesman for Somalia’s militant al-Shabab group in Kismayo says members of the Ethiopia-based rebel group, Ogaden National Liberation Front, are fighting alongside one of the factions of al-Shabab’s former Islamist ally, Hizbul Islam, in the south of the country. The accusation runs counter to Ethiopia’s claim that the ONLF has ties to al-Shabab.
- Shabelle – Sheik Abdinasir Serar who claimed as the secretary of the Islamic organization of Hizbul Islam for the foreign affairs has Tuesday said that they gained victory over yesterday’s fighting in Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia.
- Sudan Tribune – A minister in the Government of Southern Sudan narrowly escaped with gunshot wound on Sunday as his convoy was ambushed by unknown gunmen. Four were killed and five others wounded, two in critical condition, as the vehicle carrying minister Dr. Samson Kwaje of Agriculture and Forestry was riddled with more than twenty bullets by assailants.
- Al Jazeera – A Virgin Islands-owned chemical tanker carrying 28 North Korean crew members has been hijacked by Somali pirates off the Seychelles, the multinational naval force operating in the area has said.
- ISN – Significant military agreements undertaken by Morocco, Algeria and, belatedly, Libya, have strengthened the perception that the Maghreb is in the midst of a lucrative regional arms race fuelled by buyers and sellers alike.
- Xinhua – General Ahmed Abdallah, a senior military official of Libya, is on a visit in Mauritania to discuss Nouakchott’s participation in the African Union’s peacekeeping force, security sources said
- AFRICOM – U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) opened its annual Theater Security Cooperation Conference November 16, 2009, a premier event that builds the foundation for the command’s activities with its African partners over the next three years
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates welcomes Prince Khalid bin Sultan, the Saudi Arabian assistant minister of defense and aviation, for talks on the current conflict in Yemen at the Pentagon, Nov. 17, 2009. (photo by R. D. Ward)
The Global War
- US Navy – The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) officially departed 5th Fleet and entered 6th Fleet’s Area of Operations when the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) transited the Suez Canal and entered into the Mediterranean Sea recently.
- MEMRI – On November 17, 2009, Al-Qaeda’s media wing Al-Sahab released an Urdu-language audio interview with Ustadh Ahmad Farooq, described as “Al-Qaeda’s [official] in charge of the Da’wah and Media Department for Pakistan.”
- Washington Times – The sea lanes of the South Atlantic have become a favored route for drug traffickers carrying narcotics from Latin America to West and North Africa, where al Qaeda-related groups are increasingly involved in transporting the drugs to Europe, intelligence officials and counternarcotics specialists say. A Middle Eastern intelligence official said his agency has picked up “very worrisome reports” of rapidly growing cooperation between Islamic militants operating in North and West Africa and drug lords in Latin America.
- Transparency International – As the world economy begins to register a tentative recovery and some nations continue to wrestle with ongoing conflict and insecurity, it is clear that no region of the world is immune to the perils of corruption, according to Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption released today.
- Charles Taylor trial – After his cross-examination got off to a stumble last week over the use of “new evidence,” Charles Taylor today admitted to prosecutors that he shared information with the spy agency of the same country he has accused of plotting his downfall: the United States. Mr. Taylor also dismissed as “nonsense” prosecution allegations that he has been misusing his phone privileges while in jail to try to influence testimony of his defense witnesses
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15 October, 2009 (00:59) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 15 October 2009.
United States & the Americas
- US Senate – Confronting Al-Qaeda: Understanding the Threat in Afghanistan and Beyond; Hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
- Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today targeted the senior leadership of the Kongra-Gel, designating as significant foreign narcotics traffickers, Murat KARAYILAN, the head of the Kongra-Gel, and high-ranking members Ali Riza ALTUN and Zubayir AYDAR. Formally known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kongra-Gel was named by the President as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) on May 30, 2008
- AP – The airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a bombing in New York had contacts with al-Qaida that went nearly all the way to the top, to an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terrorist group’s leader in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press
- Toronto Star – A Canadian diplomat warned the federal government in writing early in 2006 that Afghan prisoners faced the possibility of torture – reports that have been smothered under a blanket of national security. The politically explosive revelation was made in an affidavit filed by Richard Colvin – now an intelligence officer with the Foreign Affairs Department – to the Military Police Complaints Commission, which once again adjourned public hearings Wednesday
- Miami Herald – Honduras’ opposing factions agreed on nearly every point of a pact to end the political crisis except the central issue: ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s return to the presidency. Negotiators said Zelaya’s camp has promised that if he returns to power, he will drop his efforts to change the Honduran constitution, an initiative that led to his June 28 ouster.
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Today – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin talked to the Chinese media about a number of issues ranging from international politics to bilateral trade, to his personal feelings about chairing Russia’s government
- Press TV – China and Russia have signed numerous deals valued at $3.5 billion during a visit to Beijing by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Russia agreed to supply energy-hungry China with gas via two Gazprom pipelines from western Siberia and the offshore Sakhalin fields.
- RIA Novosti – Russia’s new military doctrine does not rule out pre-emptive nuclear strikes against potential aggressors, the head of its Security Council said on Wednesday.
- RIA Novosti – Multistage naval exercises involving a mixed task force of Russia’s Pacific Fleet have ended in the Sea of Japan, the fleet said Thursday. The exercises that started October 6 included a three-day anti-submarine warfare drill, which involved eight warships, submarines and support vessels.
- ISN – In 2010-2011, Russia will not have enough conscripts to continue to man its army at current levels, and the strategic and resource-rich Siberian expanses are facing depopulation. How the Kremlin manages this coming crunch will determine whether or not Russia has the human capacities to remain a great power
- Kavkaz Center – Georgian secret services are assisting Al Qaeda emissaries in arranging sending of militants and arms in Chechnya and Dagestan”, said Tuesday speaking at a meeting of gang of NAC (so-called “National Anti-Terrorist Committee”), its leader, Alexander Bortnikov. “Audio evidence seized from militants shows that, together with emissaries of Al-Qaeda, they had contacts with representatives of the Georgian secret services. Through these links, Georgia participated in the training and transfer of terrorists to the territory of Chechnya”, Bortnikov said
- Georgian Times – Georgian Foreign Ministry said on October 13 that Russia’s “utterly false” allegations about Tbilisi aiding Al Qaeda was a cause of “a serious concern”.
- EurasiaNet – What’s more valuable in Central Asia, natural gas or water? Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan may soon find out. A recent Uzbek move to cut gas supplies has many Kyrgyz worrying about how to stay warm this winter. But experts say the gas cut-off may end up being counterproductive for Tashkent because it will encourage Kyrgyzstan to develop its hydro-power generating capacity. That would be a development which potentially causes a significant reduction in the volume of water flowing into Uzbekistan.
- Roger McDermott – On October 6 the French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Astana on a state visit and met his counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev. During his one day visit he also held talks with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev and the Minister of Economics and Budget Planning Bakhyt Sultanov. A Kazakh-French business forum coincided with his trip, which was designed to deepen bilateral relations
- Benjamin A.T. Graham – Nagorno-Karabakh is an almost forgotten land in the South Caucasus. Little known outside its region, it languishes as an unrecognized state. For fifteen years it has hovered on the margins of the state system fulfilling the empirical criteria of statehood but bearing high costs for its failure to gain international recognition by other states. The key players in achieving full recognition for Karabakh are Azerbaijan and Armenia, and negotiations between the two have continued since the inception of the Prague process in 2004.
- Azer News – Turkey and Armenia`s signing of a historic agreement to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their borders on Saturday, in a bid to end decades of hostility, has angered Azerbaijan.
- Trend – On Oct. 14, in Baku, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Russia’s Gazprom signed a medium-term contract to supply the Azerbaijani gas to Russia.
Middle East
- Al Jazeera – At least eight people have been killed in three near simultaneous blasts in the Iraqi city of Karbala, police and medical officials have said. The first blast struck around the time of evening prayers on Wednesday, close to one of the Shia holy city’s two major shrines, a police official said.
- Al Sumaria – A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up inside a coffee house in Bahraz District, southern Baaquba, on Tuesday night, targeting the region’s Sahwa leader Layth Mashaan, killing him and nine others
- Voices of Iraq – Iraqi security forces arrested al-Qaeda leader on Tuesday, in eastern Diala , according to a security source. Police forces waged a security operation in al-Mansouriya district, where they arrested al-Qaeda emir of the region, Mohammad Hashem Shahin,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
- Press TV – Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar says that Iran and Iraq will share intelligence to fight organized crime.
- AP – The Israeli military says its aircraft struck two smuggling tunnels along the Gaza Strip border after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants hit southern Israel.
- ynet – Representatives of Fatah in Ramallah have signed a preliminary truce deal with Hamas, Palestinian sources said Wednesday, despite recent tension over Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ conduct following the Goldstone report.
- Jerusalem Post – Thousands of weapons caches have been placed in homes scattered in 160 villages in southern Lebanon, senior defense officials said on Tuesday, a day after one such stockpile exploded in the home of a Hizbullah operative in Tayr Filsay, near Tyre.
- Press TV – Saudi security forces have reportedly shot dead two suspected al-Qaeda militants carrying explosive vests near the country’s southern border with Yemen.
- Daily Star – Turkey boosted its ties with Syria on Tuesday at the first meeting of a newly formed cooperation council, only days after Ankara’s relations with Damascus foe Israel took a downturn. The foreign, defense, interior, economy, oil, electricity, agriculture and health ministers of the two countries attended the strategic talks in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
- MEMRI – Online Jihadists Celebrate Turkey-Syria Accord Canceling Visa Requirement, See Opportunities for Jihad in Iraq and Chechnya
- NOW Lebanon – Al-Arabiya television reported online that mystery remains over the 18.5 billion dollar fortune sent by truck from Iran to Lebanon, which was confiscated by Turkish customs, who then deposited the foreign currency and gold at the Turkish Central Bank. A source close to Iran was quoted by Al-Arabiya as saying that the fortune belongs to an Iranian merchant who wanted to invest it in Turkey, while an Iranian opposition source said the fortune was on its way to Hezbollah
- Al Arabiya – Turkish fans loudly booed Armenia’s national anthem at the start of a World Cup qualifier here Wednesday attended by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian.
Iran
- Payvand – Student protests at Tehran Open University were confronted with violence on Tuesday. Amir Kabir Newsletter reported 2000 people participated in today’s protests. Reportedly, Basij forces attacked the students with pepper spray, tear gas and truncheons.
- Fars – Iran’s state shipping company dismissed as ‘sheer lies’ Britain’s accusations that the company’s vessels have transported goods related to Iran’s nuclear program. Britain on Monday said it had ordered financial companies to stop all business with Iran’s Bank Mellat and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
- MEMRI – Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Mehdi Kalhour, who is media advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has requested political asylum in Germany, where she arrived to screen her film at a film festival. Also, Iranian TV sports correspondent Mahdi Rostampour requested political asylum in Europe after he left Iran for Europe with Iran’s national wrestling team.
- Rooz – While several official news agencies announced two weeks ago that the Basij force will be merged into the ground force of the Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Armed Forces Joint Chief of Staff confirmed the plan and announced the creation of the “IRGC Ground Resistance” force.
- NCRI – The stepped up fighting in Yemen is part of a dexterous plan, prepared by the Iranian regime’s Qods Force unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), within the “Yaman khosh hal” (happy Yemen in Persian) scheme to establish an Islamic emirate, the London based Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday
- ISNA – Iran and South Korea’s GS Company signed a 1240-million euro agreement to sweeten the gas extracted from phases 6, 7 and 8 of South Pars gas field.
- Mehr – Ammar Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, October 13, in Tehran. During the meeting Ahmadinejad said enemies are not happy with a peaceful and developed Iraq.
South Asia
- Asia Times – Al-Qaeda’s guerrilla chief lays out strategy; A high-level meeting on October 9 at the presidential palace between Pakistan’s civil and military leaders endorsed a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan tribal area – termed by analysts as the mother of all regional conflicts.
- Dawn – Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region fearing an imminent army offensive against Taliban militants, officials said Wednesday.
- Daily Times – Security forces evicted Taliban from one of their strongholds in Bajaur Agency on Wednesday, said officials. A tribal lashkar also joined troops to flush out Taliban from Mulla Sayed areas in Salarzai tehsil, according to military officials. According to witness accounts, at least 30 Taliban have been killed in the agency over the last three days
- Geo – US Consul General Stephen G. Fakan again claimed that the Taliban militants have their presence in Quetta, urging the government to take necessary action against them. Addressing the newsmen during a press conference here, he said, “They have their existence in Quetta and the Government of Pakistan should root them out from here.” He warned of occurrence of Waziristan-like situation in the province if according to him the ‘necessary action’ was not taken against Taliban in Quetta, a private TV channel reports.
- Geo – At least four persons were killed and seven others sustained injuries in suspected US drone strike in Miranshah area located in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency (NWA) late on Wednesday night, Geo news reported
- AFPS – A security force killed more than a dozen insurgents and detained a suspect after searching a mountainside compound in Kunar province known to be used by an al-Qaida commander and his element believed to be responsible for trafficking foreign fighters and conducting numerous attacks in Pech Valley
- AFP – Nearly 50 Taliban insurgents have been killed and about two dozen wounded in separate incidents across Afghanistan, while two Afghan soldiers have also been killed, officials said Wednesday. In a joint operation on Tuesday, Afghan forces together with US-led troops killed 30 militants and wounded another 20 in Chora district, in the southern province of Uruzgan, the interior ministry said.
- Xinhua – Over 68 Taliban insurgents laid down their arms and surrendered to the government in western Herat province of Afghanistan on Wednesday, head of Strengthening Peace Committee Hazrat Sharif Mujadadi said. Their surrender took place in the wake of the killing of Taliban key commander Ghulam Yahya Akbari days ago.
- MEMRI – Top Afghan Official: New Types Of Iranian Mines Are Being Brought Into Afghanistan
- ISW – ISW has released a new set of maps from our latest report on Helmand Province, Afghanistan
- Xinhua – Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani praised the important role play by Chinese enterprises in Pakistani economic development when addressing Pakistan-China Trade and Investment Forum in Beijing Wednesday. There are about 120 Chinese companies investing in Pakistan, which employ 10,000 Chinese workers.
- Times of India – A day after sparring with China over Arunachal, India objected to Chinese engagement in projects in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and asked it to cease such activities taking “long-term view” of India-China relations.
- SAAG – As the time approaches for the proposed visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh next month to declare open a hospital built with contributions from the Tibetan exile community, China has stepped up its rhetoric against India
Far East & Pacific
- Chosun Ilbo – A South Korean official says North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles Monday off the east coast of the communist state. The official says North Korea warned vessels to avoid its east coast from Oct. 10 to 20, an indication that it was planning missile launches. No other details of the missile test were available
- Japan Times – Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa reaffirmed Tuesday that the Japanese refueling mission in the Indian Ocean will be terminated in January when the law authorizing it expires.
- Manila Times – Security forces arrested an Abu Sayyaf militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of dozens of teachers and students in nearby Basilan island in 2000, officials said Tuesday. The suspect, Alih Mandangan, was apprehended by government soldiers Monday night in the village of Rio Hondo
- Narinjara – Bangladesh Army Chief Lt Gen Abdul Mubin inspected the tension-ridden Alikadam area, close to the Burma border, to review the latest border situation. This is the first time a Bangladesh Army chief has visited the border area after tension escalated with Burma.
Moonlight illuminates the forecastle aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Cole as Sailors prepare for an early morning replenishment-at-sea. Cole is participating in Exercise Joint Warrior 09-2, a United Kingdom-led, multinational and multiwarfare exercise designed to improve interoperability between allied navies as well as to prepare for a role in combined operations during upcoming deployments. (photo by Seaman Matthew Bookwalter)
Europe
- UK MoD – The number of British troops deployed to Afghanistan will now stand at 9,000, increasing to 9,500 only subject to certain conditions, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced today, Wednesday 14 October 2009.
- US Army – More than 100 servicemembers assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe took part in Jackal Stone ’09, a multinational special operations exercise held Sept. 10 – 27 throughout various locations in Croatia.
- Joshua Kucera – Some estimates, including those of the U.S. Geological Survey, suggest Greenland’s coastal waters could hold anywhere from 16 billion to 47 billion barrels of oil, or 800,000 barrels for every man, woman, and child. That would mean a staggering leap in income for Greenlanders, who until two generations ago were mostly subsistence hunters and fishermen. With such massive potential oil reserves, Greenland is poised to achieve a geopolitical importance it hasn’t had since the invention of Risk.
- NY Times – With an ambitious new pipeline planned to run along the bed of the Baltic Sea, the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is driving a political wedge between Eastern and Western Europe. While the Russian-German pipeline offers clear energy benefits to Western Europe, Central and Eastern European leaders fear it could lead to a new era of gas-leveraged Russian domination of the former Soviet bloc.
- Prague Monitor – Israel is offering pilotless reconnaissance planes and anti-terrorism computer technologies to the Czech military, Defence Minister Martin Bartak told CTK after Tuesday’s talks with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak.
- AKI – Extremist websites have lauded Libyan immigrant Mohammed Game’ s botched bombing of a military barracks in northern Italy – the country’s first attempted suicide attack. Police have arrested two people suspected of helping Game in Monday’s attack, in which he lost a hand, his eyesight and suffered injuries to his face
Africa
- Garowe – Somali insurgent faction Hizbul Islam has vacated posts in the capital Mogadishu that it has controlled in the war against the UN-recognized Somali interim government, Radio Garowe reports.
- Mareeg – Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels fought for the first time between them in Yaqshid district in Mogadishu overnight, witnesses say
- Press TV – A senior Hizbul Islam commander, Shuke Abdirahman Odawa, has joined the Somali government after relinquishing his armed opposition. In a Tuesday meeting with top Somali officials, including National Security Minister Abdullahi Mohammed Ali, at the meeting in the Somali Presidential Palace, Odawa and his armed men denounced the insurgency, pledging support for the government, a Press TV correspondent reported.
- Sudan Tribune – Nigeria is mulling pulling its troops deployed in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur according to one of its officials. Wole Oke, the Nigerian chairman for the House of Representatives Committee on Defence said that his country feels “unappreciated” despite its contributions worldwide, ‘Thisday’ website quoted him.
- Magharebia – Tlemcen security services charged 3 al-Qaeda terror suspects with trafficking explosives into Algeria from Morocco, Tout sur l’Algerie reported on Monday (October 12th). Large quantities of TNT and other bomb-making materials were recovered during the week-end security operation, initiated based on information provided by another armed fighter
- FT – Kenya’s government is in talks with Beijing over development of a multi-billion dollar port and transport corridor that could provide a new export route for Chinese oil in southern Sudan.
- BBC – The situation in northern Democratic Republic of Congo where Lord’s Resistance Army rebels operate is getting worse, a medical charity says. Medecins Sans Frontieres told the BBC hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing renewed rebel attacks.
- Times of Zambia – Police have arrested seven people including two Chinese nationals in connection with the theft of 43.5 tonnes of copper concentrate worth K280 million. The police also arrested another Chinese national for allegedly offering a K3 million bribe to a police officer to secure the freedom of apprehended colleagues in Ndola
- AFRICOM – Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller, U.S. Africa Command’s deputy to the commander for military operations, spoke at the inaugural conference on Maritime Security at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, October 13, 2009. Maritime Security Africa 2009 examined maritime surveillance, safety, and security issues from a pan-African perspective.
Marines from the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit tactically position themselves during an amphibious beach assault demonstration in support of Exercise Bright Star 2009, Oct. 12. The multinational exercise is designed to improve readiness, interoperability and strengthen military-to-military relationships and improve readiness and interoperability between U.S., Egyptian and coalition forces. Bright Star is conducted by U.S. Central Command and is held every two years (photo from 22nd MEU)
The Global War
- Robert Kaplan, The Atlantic – It’s perfectly legitimate for Obama to review Afghanistan strategy and troop numbers. But by calling into question the very strategy that he put into place earlier in the year, when he called Afghanistan the “necessary war,” and promised to properly resource it, Obama is courting charges from the right that he is another ineffectual Jimmy Carter—that other Nobel Peace Prize winner.
- The News – The Taliban are in much stronger financial shape than al-Qaeda and rely on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a senior Treasury Department official said on Monday. David Cohen, the department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, said the extremist group extorts money from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers involved in Afghanistan’s booming drug trade (see remarks here)
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3 August, 2009 (00:50) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba
A brief world news roundup for 3 August 2009.
United States & the Americas
- IPT – The arrest of seven North Carolinians on conspiracy charges shows, says Steve Emerson, how the U.S. is becoming like Europe, where homegrown terror plots get stopped—or not—seemingly every week.
- Miami Herald – Peruvian authorities say attackers believed to be Shining Path rebels killed three police officers and two women in an assault on a remote police post in a coca-growing region.
- NY Times – Despite repeated denials by President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan officials have continued to assist commanders of Colombia’s largest rebel group, helping them arrange weapons deals in Venezuela and even obtain identity cards to move with ease on Venezuelan soil, according to computer material captured from the rebels in recent months and under review by Western intelligence agencies.
- UPI – Venezuela and Spain signed a series bilateral energy accords during Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratino’s visit to Caracas last week.
- LAHT – The governor of the northern Guatemalan province of Peten emerged unscathed from an attack on his vehicle on a deserted road some 478 kilometers (nearly 300 miles) north of Guatemala City, the National Civilian Police, or PNC, said Sunday.
- MercoPress – Two year capital flight from Argentina reached 43.1 billion USD
Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia
- Russia Today – Russia says it is prepared to use force to protect its troops and civilians in South Ossetia if Georgia continues its military provocations, according to Russian officials.
- Georgia MFA – Based on the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, on 2 August 2009 Russian occupants entered the village of Kveshi, Gori district (Shida Kartli) and with the aim of shifting the so-called “border” marked off the territory of the Georgian village with posts, which represents an attempt by the Russian occupants to penetrate into the depth of the Georgian territory. It is noteworthy that this move of the occupants was preceded 2 days ago by the Tskhinvali proxy regime’s statements claiming that Tskhinvali plans to demand ‘return’ to “South Ossetia” of the Truso Gorge, Kazbegi district (Mtskheta-Mtianeti region). It is obvious that the proxy regime in Tskinvali voices the plans, which the Russian occupants are intending to carry out in practice.
- Kavkaz Center – Intelligence sources of Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate reported that a convoy of military vehicles passed on the eve on Saturday at 7 am local through the town of Engels, Saratov Oblast. The convoy consisted of up 300 tanks, BMPs, BTRs, as well as various multiple launch rocket systems of “Grad (Hail)” and “Uragan (Hurricane)”. The operational sources report that the military convoy is moving towards Georgia.
- euronews – Three employees of the Russian emergencies ministry and two police officers have been shot dead in the Caucasus region. The three workers were ambushed by gunmen just before midnight on Saturday in the region of Ingushetia
- Government of Russia – Putin dives to the bottom of Lake Baikal in submarine (photos)
- AFP – Kyrgyzstan on Saturday agreed to allow Russia to station more troops in the Central Asian country as Moscow seeks to increase its military influence in the region. A memorandum signed by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev said Kyrgyzstan had “approved a proposal by Russia to house an additional Russian military contigent in Kyrgyzstan”.
- RIA Novosti – Kyrgyzstan’s newly re-elected leader, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was sworn in as president on Sunday. The inauguration took place at the government building in Bishkek, and was attended by lawmakers and the president of the neighboring Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Middle East
- MNF Iraq – As U.S. forces prepare for one of the biggest logistical challenges since the Vietnam War, military planners continue examining the best ways to move the mountains of equipment accumulated here since 2003. During a recent conference at Joint Base Balad, senior logisticians traveled from around the world to discuss the ongoing drawdown of forces and equipment here and the repositioning of assets to Afghanistan.
- Al Arabiya – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made his maiden trip as prime minister to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region on Sunday in a bid to resolve key disputes with regional leaders over land and oil. He will hold talks with regional president Massud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, amid U.S. pressure for the central government and Kurdish authorities to settle their differences before American troops leave Iraq in 2011.
- Al Sumaria – Insurgents in Iraq have their eye on security stability in the country. A series of explosions targeted mosques in Baghdad and its suburbs killing more than 29 people and wounding more than 140 others. The goriest attack occurred in Shaab District killing at least 23 people and wounding 107 others in a car bomb explosion targeting worshipers heading to Al Shroufi Mosque where Sadr Front supporters pray.
- Jerusalem Post – The Israel Police recommended Sunday that the state indict Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, saying that evidence exists to back up suspicions that he had taken bribes, fraudulently received goods, violated his public office, obstructed justice, harassed witnesses, and laundered millions of shekels using a host of shell companies and bank accounts.
- MEMRI – Fatah leader in East Jerusalem, Hatem ‘Abd Al-Qader, called on his movement to form a strategic alliance with the Iranian Revolution regime, in light of the impasse in the negotiations between the PA and Israel and the danger threatening Jerusalem. He stressed that he was speaking in the name of Fatah, not the PA.
- NOW Lebanon – Hezbollah issued a statement on Saturday in which it denounced the renewal of US sanctions against certain Syrian and Lebanese figures, which the party says were extended for “false and unjustifiable reasons.” On Thursday, US President Barak Obama issued an executive order to extend by one year the measures put in place by former US President George W. Bush to freeze the assets of certain Lebanese and Syrian figures.
- Elias Youssef Bejjani – It has become clear even to the blind that the Lebanese state is massively dominated by the Hezbollah Mullah’s leadership. This terrorist militant organization boldly dictates its Iranian decrees on all the Lebanese officials and institutions, manipulates their activities and greatly influences the whole country’s decision making process through cancerous infiltration, intimidation, and multifold tactics of terrorism.
Iran
- Payvand – About 100 Iranian activists and political moderates went on trial Saturday to face charges related to massive protests following the controversial presidential election. The semi-official Fars news agency published images of defendants sitting in a packed Tehran courtroom, some handcuffed in pairs.
- Uskowi on Iran – Criticism of Iran’s mass prosecution of political activists widened today with former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaie demanding that the trials must be held for anyone linked to deadly attacks on the streets or torture of detainees
- Times Online – Iran has perfected the technology to create and detonate a nuclear warhead and is merely awaiting the word from its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to produce its first bomb, Western intelligence sources have told The Times.
- Al Jazeera - A senior adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has resigned. Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a press adviser to Ahmadinejad, told the student news agency ISNA on Sunday: “I am resigning from the position of media adviser to the president to let him choose a capable and effective person to this position. Ahmadinejad has also faced criticism for sacking Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, the Iranian intelligence minister, in the final days of the old government amid protests against his re-election, which the opposition charged was fraudulent.
- The National – Struggling under US-led economic sanctions, Iran is increasingly turning to China for cash to invest in oil and gas development.
- Ferghana – Iran.Ru reports that Tehran will build a wall on the border with Afghanistan to prevent drug trafficking. A wall topped with barbed wire will be built along all 700 kilometers of the border. Tahi Taheri, Assistant Chief of the Iranian Drug Enforcement Agency, promises to have it constructed before the end of the Iranian year ending on March 20, 2010.
- MEMRI – An Iranian website reports that an explosion has occurred in the town of Kianpars in the Khuzestan province in southern Iran, and that the Iranian security forces are barring journalists from the area.
U.S. Army Soldier of Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division. Stands guard down an alley as part of an air assault mission in support of Operation Champion Sword, July 28. Champion Sword is a joint operation involving Afghanistan national security forces and International Security Assistance Forces focused on specific militant targets and safe havens within Sabari and Terezai Districts of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. (photo by Spc. Christopher Nicholas)
South Asia
- Dvids – Three International Security Assistance Force service members were killed in eastern Afghanistan. Their patrol was first struck by an improvised explosive device and then attacked by insurgents with small arms fire. The patrol responded to the attack but three service members died in the engagement.
- Pentagon – Lance Cpl. Gregory A. Posey, 22, of Knoxville, Tenn., and Lance Cpl. Jonathan F. Stroud, 20, of Cashion, Okla., died July 30 of wounds suffered while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan
- Daily Times – Charges of rebellion against the state have been laid against Tehreek-e-Nafiz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi chief Sufi Muhammad in Saidu Sharif Police Station in Swat district on Sunday, police said.
- The News – With sections of the foreign media reporting that the government was again holding peace talks with Baitullah Mehsud, a high-ranking military official refuted the reports by categorically stating that the time to seek a truce with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head was past.
- EurasiaNet – The Pakistani government is waging a high-profile offensive in tribal areas near the Afghan border to contain Islamic militants. But part of the struggle is also playing out in madrasas, or religious schools, across the country. EurasiaNet photojournalist Jonathan Alpeyrie takes a close look at the daily routine of one madrasa on the outskirts of Islamabad in a EurasiaNet slideshow.
- Geo – Search and clearance operations continued by security forces in Swat and Malakand in which four terrorists were killed and 27 apprehended. According to ISPR, 2 Terrorists were killed and 7 were apprehended during clearance operation in area Derai and Danda. Security forces discovered 2 tunnels of 75 meters and 60 feet length, 4 fresh dug graves and 1 training camp with bunkers and a generator in Biha Valley. Ten suspects including a local commander were arrested in search and clearance operations at Kamargai near Gulibagh.
- Dawn – The government on Sunday asked Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti to work in coordination with the government of Punjab to unmask the elements behind the Gojra violence, well-placed sources told Dawn. They said the government had received information that a group of armed ‘miscreants’, with masked faces had come from Jhang and led the violence against Christians on the pretext of desecration of the Holy Quran.
- Daily Star – Intelligence agencies have come to know about covert activities of an Islamist organisation in the country and its close link with the banned outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.
- Times of India – If the Centre has its action plan ready to deal with Maoists, the Red ultras have a counter-plan in place which talks about expanding their “guerrilla war to new areas” to “disperse the enemy force (security personnel) over a sufficiently wider area”.
- Sri Lanka MoD – Sri Lanka forces continued clearing operation in liberated areas uncovered more LTTE military hardware from Putukkudiyiruppu, Adampan, Mullaittvu, Ampakamam, on yesterday, 01 Aug , military sources said.
Far East & Pacific
- B.Raman – Is the military junta in Myanmar trying to acquire a military nuclear capability with North Korean assistance? Or is North Korea trying to shift some of its nuclear facilities to Myanmar to protect them from a possible attack by the US? If either of this scenario is true, is China, which has a strong and active presence in North Korea as well as Myanmar, aware of it? Has it taken up the matter with the two Governments? Has it alerted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)?
- AFP – Police in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang have arrested hundreds of people in connection with disturbances that left at least 197 people dead, state media reported Sunday.
- China MFA – Special Representatives of China and India on the border issue will hold the 13th meeting in India from August 7 to 8. Mr. Dai Bingguo, State Councilor of China, and Mr. Narayanan, National Security Adviser of India, will attend the meeting and exchange views on the development of the Sino-Indian Strategic and Cooperative Partnership as well as international and regional issues of common interest
- CSM – Foreign reporters this week got a rare peek inside an infantry base of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). At the same time, officials were reportedly putting the final touches to a bilingual PLA website that is due to go live on Aug. 1, the 82nd anniversary of its foundation
- Chosun Ilbo – China has declined a suggestion from the U.S. to discuss a contingency plan in case North Korea collapses after leader Kim Jong-il dies, AP reported Sunday
- Yonhap – South Korea’s top spy agency is pushing for legal revisions that will allow it to access information on financial transactions of over 20 million won (US$16,000) without a warrant, saying that will help track down terrorism-related funds, officials said Monday.
Europe
- Haaretz – The head of a British parliamentary counter-terrorism committee called on Saturday for the government to clarity whether al Qaeda operatives had tried to infiltrate the MI5 domestic security agency. Patrick Mercer, an opposition Conservative and chairman of parliament’s sub-committee on counter-terrorism, said he had been told up to six Muslim recruits had been ejected from the spy agency because of concerns about their backgrounds.
- Copenhagen Post – Defence minister informs parliament Muslim women may not wear headscarves in armed forces; Søren Gade, the defence minister, has responded to a formal parliamentary request from Red-Green Alliance MP Per Clausen who had asked the minister to make a final decision on whether Muslim women are allowed to wear head scarves in the armed forces, reports Politiken newspaper. Clausen had asked Gade whether Muslim women were to be excluded from the Home Guard if they wore a headscarf.
- Hurriyet – The violation of Greek airspace and the Turkish military’s flights over Greek islands are unnecessary provocations that are against international law, Greece’s foreign minister has said.
- SE Times – Bulgaria must freeze the construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant if it doesn’t find private investors for its majority stake in the project, Martin Dimitrov, chairman of the parliamentary committee on economy, energy, and tourism said
Africa
- Garowe – Somali lawmakers in the capital Mogadishu have rejected a controversial maritime boundary deal signed between the governments of Somalia and Kenya, Radio Garowe reports. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was signed last April in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, attempts to set a maritime boundary on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf between the two East African neighbors.
- Asharq Al Awsat – A security official in the Transitional Government of Somalia has reported that prominent Al-Qaeda organization leaders are in direct contact with the hard-line Mujahidin Youth movement which is opposed to President Sheikh Sharif and the presence of foreign forces in the country.
- Shabelle – The Islamic administration of Harakat Shabab Mujahideen forces have conducted operations in Jowhar town 90 kilometers in north of the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials told Shabelle radio on Sunday.
- Magharebia – Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility Saturday (August 1st) for the deadly attack on a military convoy near Damous, Tipaza region, which killed at least 14 Algerian soldiers and injured many others on Wednesday
- Xinhua – Liu Guijin, Chinese special envoy to Africa, on Friday wrapped up his two-day visit to Senegal. Before leaving Senegal, Liu held a press conference in Dakar and told reporters about the preparations for the 4th China-Africa Cooperation Forum ministerial meeting that is to be held in Egypt this November and China’s investment in Africa’s energy sector.
- Sudan Tribune – The ‘Daily Monitor’ Ugandan newspaper said that Gier Chuang Aluong, GoSS minister of interior flew to Uganda in mid-July and met with President Yoweri Musievini conveying a letter from Kiir asserting the danger of even “threatening to arrest” Bashir. Sources told the newspaper that Kiir cautioned that such a situation may cause Uganda to turn “Somalia with suicide bombers making security difficult and there was the risk of war if Bashir was facing arrest”.
- BBC – Civilians in both the Central African Republic (CAR) and south Sudan have come under from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), aid agencies have said. The Ugandan rebel group is said to have killed people in several CAR towns, forcing survivors to flee.
- Vanguard – The Bauchi State Police Command said it has uncovered a house in the town owned by the Boko Haram Islamic sect opposed to western education stocked with ammunition, bales of fake military and police uniforms, three sowing machines and other sophisticated weapons. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, weekend, condemned the recent massacre of innocent citizens by the religious extremists and the destruction of properties in the Northern part of the country
- This Day – It has emerged that the leader of the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured alive last Thursday before Nigerian police later allegedly killed him.
- VOA – Nigerian authorities say more than 700 people were killed in last week’s clashes between police and a militant Islamic sect in the country’s north.
- New Times – Following a two-day bilateral summit that was concluded in Beijing last week, China has given Rwanda interest-free loans amounting to $ 37 million most of which will fund the Kigali road network rehabilitation project.
The Moroccan Royal Navy Vessel Rais Charkaoui, alongside a U.S. Coast Guard Over-the-Horizon small boat from the Coast Guard Cutter Legare, conduct the first-ever joint Moroccan/U.S boarding, July 23. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Moroccan Royal Navy partnered for a nine-day joint law enforcement operation in Moroccan territorial waters, which showcased each services tactics, techniques and boarding procedures (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas Blue)
The Global War
- AFPS – Remains found last month in Iraq’s Anbar province are those of Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, who was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet on Jan. 17, 1991, and whose fate until now had been uncertain, Defense Department officials reported today.
- Naharnet – A deadly Iranian plane crash on July 15 was caused by the explosion of ammunition destined for Hizbullah, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported. According to the report, the pilot of the Tupolev plane, which was making its way from Tehran to the Armenian capital of Yerevan, sent an emergency warning 16 minutes after takeoff.
- US Navy – The U.S. Navy christened the newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), Aug. 1 during a ceremony at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine.
- NATO – The new Secretary General of NATO, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, took up his duties on 1st August 2009.
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